What Would YOU do? (Special Attention: Gluten Intolerance)

Anton,, many people travel just fine with Celiac. My friend has it,, and they ( he and his wife) have never let it hold them back. They do try and rent an apartment when they are more then 3 -4 days in a city so they can do some of their own cooking.

Forgot to mention, in one place our tour stayed near Florence the hotel served the ladies with Celiac Gluten free pasta they had purchased. That was luck of course,, but I noticed that while most of us ate alot of pasta, they just ordered meats and veggies all the time.

On a Rick Steves tour I took 2 years ago we had a family where the mother and the daughter both had Celiac. They talked to the waiters at all our shared meals, and yes, sometimes they sent food back( after making sure a soup was safe to eat( the ingreidents) ,, it was served with CROUTONS sprinkled on top, LOL ). They were in Europe for a total of 3 weeks( 2 on tour, one on own) and they brought a few things from home( some rice cakes and some sort of granola bars( gluten free)for snacks.

And not same as gluten problem,, but actually much worse in consquence( death) was a young girl on tour with peanut allergy. Her mom handled that well too.

Point is, a dietary restriction is a bit more work for sure,, but you and your wife can have a great time. Bring a few things. Bring TRANSLATED cards that explain the problem( to give to waiters who do not speak english) ,, and consider staying in an apartment, or renting a room with a kitchenette.

I would go in a heartbeat.

You can eat nearly anywhere in Europe with Celiac. Most of the population is educated on it, especially the wait staff. If you ask a waiter or waitress what's gluten free, or for celiac, they will most likely know.

Also, so much of the food is fresh, and doesn't contain a lot of the "junk" that we put into foods that tends to be difficult for celiac's.

My mother is a 33 sufferer of celiac's, and we were just fine on our trip through Europe in May.

Google: Gluten Free Restaurant Cards, and you can find cards with translations into most Europeans languages for folks with celaic's to present to non English speaking wait staff.

The awareness in pretty much everywhere. In Italy, all children are tested for it (so the locals told us), and in Ireland it seemed just about everybody was an expert on it.

What would I do? Enjoy the trip with my wife! ;) =)

I am a celiac. I have had 3 trips to France and one trip to Italy since my diagnosis and have found it fairly easy to find gluten free foods. I echo what has been posted before; in Italy, they are well informed about Celiacs and most food is made simply in France and Italy. Italian restaurants often have GF pasta. Celiac in Italian is celiaco (chee-lee-ah-koh)

http://www.celiactravel.com/restaurant-cards.html
is the link to the cards in many languages. There is a lot of information on that site.

I do take some protein bars and rice cakes or rice crackers to start the trip. That was helpful to start out and when I purchased cheese at markets for picnicing. On one trip, my second flight was on an affiliated airline; the second airline did not get the information that I was on a special diet. My snacks helped; they did put together some food I could eat (cheese and vegetables). The space taken up by the snacks I brought on the trip over, left space for the purchases I made during my holiday!!

Before I leave, I search online to find some Natural food stores (Bio in French); Naturalia is a French store in Paris. The website had maps. In Italy, Billa is a regular grocery that may have some GF products; some stores did have rice cakes. Their website also had maps.

With some advanced planning, you can relax during the trip. Enjoy your holiday.

If you have an iphone or ipod touch, you can download an app called "Gluten Free Restaurant Cards" which has cards in 40 languages that can be shown to waiters/chefs asking questions related to gluten/celiac. And, it's free.

I believe you can also find the cards at Celiac Travel

Good advice above.

As for where to spend the extra days, one option of course would be to explore Spain. But my first choice, since the question is "what would I do", would be Italy!

Despite its reputation as the land of pizza and pasta, I find Italy the easiest place to happily eat gluten-free without making special requests. While the rest of the family enjoys the pasta dishes I don't cook for them at home, I happily dine on risotto, grilled fish or chicken, and salads.

The hardest part is actually breakfast, but most places will provide yogurt and fruit on request if it is not already on the morning buffet. Also, I carry a supply of gluten-free granola that I brought from home, just in case.

We found we were able to accomodate my son's gluten intolerance in Italy and Germany very easily. We also were able to pick up some great snacks for him in stores. (My mom had some great breads and rolls special ordered for him in Germany- I will try to find the store's name out for you.) The one thing I found that was difficult was his dinners were always the most expensive, because we could eat cheap pasta, and he would have the expensive chicken dish. Other than that, it wasn't a problem, at all. I have seriously had way more problems with U.S. travel (the pizza/pasta place that had no alternatives in the small town in the middle of nowhere.)

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies and the nice websites. We will definitely look into those. Any other itinerary and/or timing suggestions? (go before the conference and end there or start there after the conference ends?)

Just my personal thought, I would go after the conferences. Just so you can really be in "holiday mode".Hotels will not be any cheaper if you go before( check that out) and in fact many may be full anyways,, so any extra booking time you give yourself may work out better.

Is airline travel booked. Can you fly into Barcelona and OUT of another city( open jaw), as you will then save back tracking! YOu know, into Barcelona and out of Rome maybe??

You might want to visit grocery stores and eat out less often.