Eating gluten and dairy free in Italy

Certainly not easy if Pizza or pasta are on the menu.
There are gluten-free alternatives, though, in a lot of city restaurants these days

The phrase and senza glutine there are often gluten free options for pizza and pasta in many restaurants. In Italy the waiters take their jobs very seriously and will know how things are made and what ingredients are contained in things. Menus are also extensively marked for potential allergens.

Anecdotally the people who were concerned about gluten did no seem to be bothered in Italy when they stopped asking for gluten free in Italy. No guarantee you would have the same results.

Hope that helps, good luck,
=Tod

While I’m not GF I am vegan so dairy free. It IS mostly possible to eat dairy free as well. I had a translation card that I would show the server if I didn’t think “senza formaggio” was going to do the trick. And yes, I got pizza senza formaggio although the server came back to make sure that is what I wanted.

For gelato, look in the case for sorbetto which is sometimes (but not always) dairy-free. Last trip most places had little green leaves on the labels for vegan sorbetto. Delish. The fresh peach sorbetto remains a highlight from long ago!

I’m allergic to shellfish and I noticed that many menus have symbols and numbers so you can pick GF or vegan or whatever you prefer.

My friend is gluten and dairy free and she said it was actually easier to eat gf/df while there! As others have mentioned, just know the words for it and it should be fine! Just don't go into a cheese restaurant hahaha

In Italy allergies for food ingredients are taken very seriously, so every bar and restaurant must have a list of ingredients to be shown to know what every dish contain. Often (but not always) are even shown on the public menu.
Told that, now the most of restaurants offer alternatives GF and DF for several dishes. The most tricky is of course the pizza and breads, that do GF without cross contamination is more difficult so not so often served.
Is even very important for you know if is an allergy or an intolerance. Often I noted foreign tourists that can eat Italian food without problems because is in general much more natural and with less chemicals than the American one.

As said above, it's important the distinction of intolerance or allergy. As a celiac this summer I had good success eating in Italy. If a place had GF breads or pastries they mostly came out as pre-packaged items (like a dinner roll wrapped in a plastic wrap. So definitely not home made or anything.) That was also my experience with our hotels that said they had GF items available. Much appreciated, but I had to temper my expectations that I wasn't going to get some homemade GF products at most places I visited.

For pizza and pasta, the vast majority of the time I ate GF, it was the same story. It was packaged product they used and not homemade GF pasta or pizza dough. The few places I went that had homemade GF pasta it was divine!

Italy (and in general all of Europe) do a way better job of listing allergens on menus and have a better understanding than in the US. Definitely some exceptions to both points there, but I felt the servers did a great job accommodating my allergy. However, I also spend hours researching restaurants to find ones that had good reviews accommodating GF. As some have suggested, the flour in Italy is different than the US, but if you have a gluten allergy, it still contains gluten. It may be a different story for someone gluten intolerant though, I don't have any experience in that. Have a great trip!

@Kenko-“not if pizza or pasta are on the menu”
That’s where you’d be mistaken. On our last trip to Italy in June of this year, pretty much every single restaurant, taverna, bar, whatnot, had gluten free items on their menus and they take it very seriously because the laws are very clear. They don’t joke about it and there are gluten free pizzas and pasta everywhere.

Gluten free pizza and pasta in Florence was unbelievably easy as long as you don’t need the restaurant to have a GF kitchen. Venice was also easy. Naples was much more difficult.

I don't have any food-allergy issues, but I've seen a few small shops in Italy with signs indicating they sell only gluten-free products. You might keep your eyes open for those and buy a few snacks to try.