Summary of My Trip to Europe - Part I - Italy

[Guest guest]

As promised, I wanted to summarize my experience traveling for 2 weeks in Europe. I am breaking this e-mail up into two parts - Italy and then London/Paris/Edinburgh. This was the first time I have traveled since being diagnosed 4 years ago (except for my annual GIG conventions!). Sorry for the length of the e-mail, but I wanted to give as much information as I could to anyone who might want to travel.

First of all, I packed all of my necessary gluten-free products to get me through in a crisis (and boy did I need THAT food sometimes!). I packed trail mix, crackers, peanut butter, cookies and pretzels. I also took out of the freezer 2 packages of Kinnikinnick hamburger buns and 2 packages of Whole Foods almond scones and put them in shopping bag in my suitcase with my name on the bag (this bag ended up traveling with me to Rome and London and was kept frozen in my hotel's restaurant's freezer case). When I can't eat somewhere, I need substance - hence all the carbohydrates! I also brought along lots of individual Kraft dressings that I ordered before my trip so I could always have a salad. I brought lots of plastic sandwich bags which came in handy.

I want you to know that I did tons of research before my trip on every celiac website, as well as the UK's celiac websites. For 2 weeks, I basically knew what city I would be in and what restaurants would be available for me to eat in.

On my way to Rome, my trip started with a British Airways gluten-free dinner of chicken and potatoes (with a gluten roll wrapped up on my plate!). I knew it was a gluten roll because it looked like my husband's roll on his plate AND it just looked too darn delicious! Ate my dinner and skipped the roll - I was fine.

ITALY - well, what they say about g-f food being so easily accessible in all the pharmacies in Italy is just flat out wrong. During our week stay, every time I saw a green cross on a building in Italy, I went in to investigate - probably about 15 of them!). Only about half of the pharmacies had g-f food, and except for two pharmacies, most of the others had very little packaged g-f food. Two pharmacies had a tremendous number of g-f products to choose from!

Lunches were a horror in Italy - we walked the city of Rome every day, and all we could find was pasta and pizza - not even a green salad could be found. It was awful. I would eat a banana or ice cream and much on crackers or scones while my husband ate lunch. I was so depressed, but knew I would eat well at night at certain restaurants we had made reservations for. By the third day, I got smart and put cheese and meat from our buffet breakfast into a sandwich bag and then ate that with crackers during lunch! I had given my frozen bread to the hotel to put in their restaurant's freezer and took out some scones every day. The restaurant at the hotel we stayed at in Rome (Cicerone Hotel) only had an exclusive high-priced restaurant that we didn't eat in. The hotel staff wasn't all that nice, so I really didn't ask them to do anything.

As far as restaurants in Italy, make reservations the day before and let them know you are coming and want g-f pizza or a g-f meal. These are the restaurants I ate in:

ROME - We took taxis in Rome to all of these restaurants that served gluten-free food. Tulipano Nero is a great lunch place to eat in. They had g-f pizza on their menu. It was okay - not the best, but great to eat g-f pizza in Italy! (Address-Via Roma Libera, 15, Rome; Phone-+39 (06) 581-8309). Ripa 12 is a restaurant on a small street in Rome which also had g-f pizza - again, okay. They also served g-f pasta. (Address-Via S. Franceso a Ripa 12, Rome; Phone-+39 (06) 580-9093. DaArturo's Restaurant is a NICE fancy restaurant - I had g-f spaghetti - delicious. (Address-Via Aurelia Antica, Rome; Phone-+39 (06) 662-3408.

There was one more recommended Rome restaurant who served g-f food, but we never made it there - La Fiorentina - (Address-Via Doria 22, Rome - near the Vatican. I did not get a phone no.)

POMPEI - We took a tour to Pompei. The tour included lunch at the Celini-Hotel Vittori in Pompei. The restaurant staff was knowledge about gluten and actually whipped me up a wonderful dish of rissoto and a green salad on a moment's notice. Sorry, I do not know the contact information for this hotel restaurant because this was a delightful surprise. It is right at the base of the ruins of Pompei.

SORRENTO - We stayed one night in Sorrento and I made reservations at this restaurant that everyone said had g-f pizza. I had FORGOTTEN to call the day before to request a g-f pizza. When I got there, I was crushed they did not have g-f pizza for me and got so depressed, but was elated to be served g-f lasagne that was delicious! There was even another celiac family at a table next to mine who called the day before and ordered g-f gnocchi. Restaurant Pizzeria La Fenice (Address-Via degli Aranci 11, Sorrento 80067; Phone-+39 081-8781652). You will miss a meal of a lifetime in Italy if you do not eat here. It was wonderful to walk the streets of Sorrento and walk down near the pier and eat here.

I will send another e-mail about London, Edinburgh and Paris shortly.