Cheese-free in Italy?

You will not be limited. There are pizzas, pasta dishes (I make them here at home all the time), soups, salads, breads, gelatos, meat dishes, steaks, without cheese.

If you could stick to restaurants with the menu posted outside (and many have the English translation, that is good for business) where you can read it before going inside that may help assuming you will have some kind of translator mobile thingy or a book with food vocabulary.

Also there are all kinds of restaurants in Italy not just serving Italian cuisine I've seen hamburgers, sushi, Chinese food. etc.

You think you got it bad, my friend is gluten intolerant meaning she can not eat pasta or bread and we found a nice restaurant in Orvieto that had fresh baked gluten free bread and made pasta gluten free

Strange question, Why would you order cheese if you don't like it? No carbonara and no cacio& pepe pasta for you, problem solved.
When waiters ask if you want some cheese before the dessert they do not mean it's mandatory.

Of course I would not purposely order cheese. Actually, where I live (NYC) it is very common for a dish to contain cheese and not even put it on the menu. Meatballs are made with cheese as well. Take pesto for example. Some places use cheese in making it and others do not. It is not always clear on the menu.

You can always tell the waitperson that you must avoid cheese by saying "Non mangio il formaggio." They will steer you clear. Same goes for all food issues: gluten, dairy, soy. They will guide you if you tell them.

I have even seen cheese-free pizza, but get the mozzarella. It is magnificent!

Thanks! We will be going to Rome, Florence, Venice and Lake Como.

I'll just add that I've never had a problem with no cheese (I'm vegan) - I just would say "senza formaggio" which a server must have told me early on in my travels to Italy. I've never had trouble getting no cheese on pizza or making sure pasta did not have cheese as well.

A time or two a server has come back to question if I really did NOT want cheese. Altho I am not lactose intolerant I usually just point to my stomach and make a frown-y face which gets the point across without me having to explain much more than that. I've got awful language skills so any time I can communicate without having to resort to vocabulary works for me, lol. The least amount of explaining I can do the better off I am.

I do carry a card that says I am vegan with more explanation if I need to use it. I downloaded it from a link from HappyCow.net

It will be hard to avoid cheese if you ever go to France.

Italian American food is very cheese heavy. Real Italian food is not cheese heavy. You won't have a problem.

"It will be hard to avoid cheese if you ever go to France."

Actually, it's not hard to avoid cheese in France. Headed back soon for my 6th visit to Paris since 2014 and I've never had to eat cheese.

You should assume pesto almost always containing cheese. The two main varieties of pesto are with or without garlic, but some cheese should be in it (Pecorino or Parmigiano or both). Pesto without cheese is rare and only for vegans or persons with cheese intolerances.

The other thing to say, since this is a dislike rather than an allergy, is that the yellow stuff sold in the US which purports to be cheese is a world away, nay a galaxy away from real Italian locally produced cheeses. There are many many different variations in Italy, and even more around Europe which truly are nothing like US cheese.

The cows milk mozzarella will be different, and the buffalo mozzarella will be even more different. Different taste, different texture, different smell.

Others fairly commonly used, but completely different from those across the pond, are Fontina and Ricotta. Again, the texture, flavour and smell will be different.

I don't know if you would be up for it, but you might try seeing those in a salumeria and see if you feel the same way about them in their home land.

Also, don't wait for "Cheese With That Sir?" man to come around with the big cheese grater or grinder bestowing industrial strength on everything. They won't come. Only dishes designed to have cheese will have any, and it will be applied with a deft touch by Chef, in the kitchen.

They don't have the yardstick length pepper grinders either.

I have to say, I have been flirting with the idea of trying a mild cheese in a pasta or something in Italy, as the pasta dishes are the ones that have me the most worried anyway. In Manhattan, I can’t even assume a seafood dish does not have cheese as we appear to be obsessed with it. I have to ask before I order anything— except in Asian cuisine restaurants— if what I’ve ordered has it.

Good news. The authentic version of NYC Italian dishes that almost always have cheese often have no cheese in Italy. For example Saltimbocca, served with cheese and a brown sauce in NYC, is served with no cheese and a wine/stock sauce in Rome (also no spinach). Fish and seafood probably won't have cheese. Pick some dishes from the menu that sound good and then do what you do in NYC, ask the waiter if any of the dishes you've selected include cheese.

Pizza is not as ubiquitous in Italian restaurants as American "Italian" restaurants would have you believe. We have spent a lot of time in Italy and never once ordered pizza. Me, because I am gluten-free, and my husband prefers what we make at home ( thin crust, two toppings, not "loaded".)

A seafood dish in Italy should not involve any cheese. They are considered incompatible. Most risottos, for example, are finished with some Parmigiano-Regianno; seafood risotto is not.

There is one notable seafood dish that does involve cheese, but I cannot remember just now. I'll let you know when I do.

Plain grilled meat dishes, and vegetable side dishes (" contorni") should also be cheese-free.

Or you could ask for a vegan menu.

Seriously, it will not be difficult to be cheese-free in Italy. In France or Switzerland, yes, but not Italy.

Ah!! Nigel -- that is harsh. We do make some excellent cheeses.

True, Frank, but the orange-dyed stuff is not among them.

You will be fine. You do know there are non-cheese pizzas available-even at my local pizzeria and not all pasta has parmesan on it. That's American Italian food. There are many people who are lactose intolerant so I don't think anyone will shame you.

Please don't confuse Italian-American food with Italian food. There is a difference.

You will have plenty of selections without cheese. Just learn how to say "I can't eat cheese" in Italian and the waiters will let you know if a dish has cheese or can be made without it.

Even the pizza in Italy has less cheese than it does in the U.S.