Our son has a severe tree nut allergy (cashews, pecans, pistachios, and walnuts). We take calculated risks here at home when visiting ice cream parlors -- asking the staff to wash the scoop before getting his ice cream to avoid cross contamination, etc. I feel like gelato is a wonderful experience when in Italy, and I so want him to be able to experience and enjoy this. When we traveled to Austria last year, restaurants and ice cream shops were so accommodating when we informed them of our son's tree nut allergy, and we always felt very safe. Does anyone have any experience or advice with this in Italy? Would it be completely unsafe to try to get a nut-free serving of gelato somewhere? I understand that there are always small risks (almost everything these days is "produced in a facility with nuts"), and we are OK with that -- just trying to figure out if we can make this happen for our son without accepting too big of a risk.
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Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
Just tell the server about your son's allergy, or carry a card printed in Italian. I don't know about nut allergies, but Italian gelaterie are very good about sensitivities to gluten, for example at Grom: container remains covered, designated scoop. I think the servers will be able to accommodate you.