Vegetarian Eating in Venice, Florence, Rome

You can always take a look at vegetarian & vegan friendly restaurants and grocery stores for Europe at Happycow.net website. Italy is one of the easiest places to go vegetarian, even more so if you eat fish. If you are worried about the language barrier, you can always use an online translator to prepare a few cards to hand to a waiter stating your dietary restrictions so he can then point out which meals or appetizers are suitable.

My husband is a strict vegetarian. We had no problem finding vegetarian options wherever we went in Italy. I'd recommend that you familizaize yourself with menu items in Italian. Since you eat seafood, you won't have any problems.

Maybe it would be handy for you to have a copy of "Marling Menu Master - Italy" with you. Amazon has them for $9.95 if you can't find a copy locally.

I spent 3 weeks in Italy and barely ate any meat, even though I am not a vegetarian. I ate a lot of pasta dishes.

My wife eats much like you, vegetarian, but includes fish and dairy, and does not object to eggs in prepared foods. She has a very easy time finding something on menus in any reataurant I choose. I will add though, if you object to Dairy, and are very strictly vegetarian, maybe even vegan, then the difficulty factor goes up tremendously. It is easy to pick a dish based on main ingredients, much more difficult to decipher if butter or stock was used in preparation.

Just FYI, maybe doesn't apply to your case: a lot of risottos and typical "non-meat" dishes use a meat stock even when they say it's all vegetable based. If you are recent to the vegetarian scene and actualy a pescetarian/not vegetarian, not a big deal and you will find more than enough to eat. I travel with my sister quite a bit and she's a true vegetarian, not for moral but health reasons, and get's sick eating animal proteins. She pretty much eats the 'veggie' options and 50% of the time gets sick. Italy is probably the best place for a veggie to dine well....France might be the worse. Best of luck!

being a vegetarian in Venice, Florence and Rome is not that difficult being a fish eater gives you even more choices and if you eat dairy it's really easy being a vegan is a little more challenging but not impossible I've been a vegetarian (no fish) for 24 years and I don't have a problem in Italy
The big cities like Venice, Florence and Rome have so many food choices, english menus are everywhere

pugliamonti is a gourmet vegetarian restaurant on Via Urbana in Rome. The menu is completely in Italian, so when we picked our meal the first night, we were surprised as we did not know what we were getting. The wait staff would help with some translation but I didn't want to be a tool and have them translate the entire menu. The second night we went, I had translated an older menu I found online and was more aware of what they had to offer. Both nights, our meal was fantastic. There are some posts on tripadvisor saying that it isn't a 100% veggie restaurant; well it was when I went in 2010. It was pricey however, the second night we went, they gave us 50% off our meal if we got there as soon as it opened. In Venice, there is a Mediterranean restaurant across the way from Frari Church in San Polo district, maybe called Cafe Frari. It was a nice break from Pasta/italian food.
There will be plenty of options for you.

I've been to Italy twice and not had a problem eating strictly vegetarian. Baked goods can be more of a challenge than restaurant food, because animal fats are often used. It's a good idea to make a short list of the necessary vocabulary with translations.