My husband has celiac disease and has to eat gluten free. Any suggestions on places to eat in Rome ? Also we are going to Tuscany and staying Lucca so any suggestions there would be great.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16241 posts
A "gluten-free" restaurant in the land of pasta would be hard to find. It's not so much a question of "where" to eat as what to choose. I have this too and eat very well in Italy---risotto, polenta, salads, grilled meats and fish, lovely vegetables. Avoid batter-fried foods, of cuorse. Most sauces are OK; they are rarely thickened with flour, but you could ask to be certain. So people make up a card in Italian to show the waiter, explaining that they can eat no wheat. I've not found this necessary.
Breakfast is the biggest probelm, since the standard breakfast offered is bread or rolls and butter. I carry some of my own oat granola in case there's nothing else I can eat on the breakfast table.
Posted by
Portland, OR, USA
2 posts
You can find quite a few listings for restaurants in Italy on the Celiac Handbook website: http://www.celiachandbook.com/italy.html
Italy has quite a high rate of celiac disease and unlike the U.S. most restaurants are familiar with the term gluten-free. Another great resource is the Italian Celiac Association: http://www.celiachia.it/ristoratori/892424en.asp
They have a great service that enables you to call a local telephone # to find a restaurant that serves GF food. Here's a quote from their website:
"Thanks to a partnership agreement with Gruppo Seat Pagine Gialle, which specializes in multimedial communications, it is possible to receive swift, precise, up-to-date and reliable answers – also in English - to queries about venues and restaurants throughout Italy which are informed and monitored by the AIC (Associazione Italiana Celiachia – Italian Celiac Association) that serve gluten-free food."
I think you'll find it realtively easy to find GF food in Italy. Good luck.