When I was first diagnosed with celiac disease, I went to my best friend’s place in Montreal for dinner. She is Italian, and her lovely family were used to feeding me pasta since I was 16 years old. When I explained my disease to her parents, her father looked appalled. “Jodi”, he said, “this is a fate worse than death.”
While many celiacs feel the same way upon hearing their diagnosis, the reality is that the world is a safer place for our stomachs than it ever has been. And nowhere is that more the case than in Italy. As I explain below, Italy was one of the easiest places in the world to enjoy safe and delicious food as a celiac.
For newly diagnosed celiacs or gluten free diners, I often recommend it as the first international trip after they’ve adjusted to dietary changes. There’s so much knowledge, training of restaurant and hotel staff, and understanding of what cross-contact is.
Italy is a feast for the eyes and stomach if you’re celiac, and shouldn’t be missed! Happy and safe eating,
Already know you want a gluten free translation card? You can buy my Italian card here, as well as Japan, Greece, Spain, and more!
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Upon my return from Italy, I waxed poetic about how much I could eat. The first reaction from every single person was precisely the same: “oh Italy must be accommodating its tourists!”
It was obvious that the dietary changes were not rooted in tourism. Even tiny towns had knowledge of the disease, and had been exposed to it sufficiently that they made adjustments in what they offered.
I reached out to Letizia Mattiacci, who runs a B&B with a cooking school in Italy. Letizia responded quickly:
I recall seeing a Dutch study time ago stating that modern wheat varieties have higher toxic gluten content than traditional varieties. Then there’s the problem of overexposure. Wheat and modified starch are everywhere, so Italians are certainly more exposure than others as we are big pasta and bread eaters. According to the Italian celiac association, about 1% of Italians are celiac. As a consequence, is not surprising that you find lots of gluten free options in Italy. In Perugia we even have a gluten free restaurant and we’ll have a Gluten-Free Festival at the beginning of June.
In a 2019 report entitled “Direzione Generale per l’Igiene e la Sicurezza degli Alimenti e la Nutrizione“, the Italian government noted that celiac disease diagnoses in Italy increased by 57,899 from 2012 to 2017, with an average of 10,000 new cases diagnosed per year.
The knowledge and care about gluten free dining goes much deeper than that. Children are routinely screened for celiac disease in Italy once they begin to show any symptoms that may be correlatable, something doctors missed for me when I was a child. I spent many years sick to my stomach with no suggestions to screen for celiac. As with some other countries, in Italy celiacs also receive a government subsidy to compensate them for the higher cost of gluten-free foods.
Furthermore, Maria Ann Roglier, the author of The Gluten-Free Guide to Italy, notes that Italian law requires that gluten-free food be available in schools, hospitals, and public places. And that you can study for a masters in celiac disease, from diagnosis to management thereof.
But one thing still nagged: the country didn’t just know about celiac disease, they accepted it. They embraced that this was an issue and moved around it to accommodate their meals, and did so with gusto. I asked Letizia and she gave a thoughtful response: that Italians are very conscious of the connection between health and food.
In addition, there is the fact that food is central to Italian life and community. Per a New York Times piece on celiacs in Italy:
In Italy, not being able to stomach wheat is more than an inconvenience or fad diet.
“It’s a tragedy for Italians,” said Susanna Neuhold, the AiC’s manager of food programs. “Food in Italy is the center of social life and relationships with people. For someone who can’t go out with their friends or to a work meeting at a restaurant, it’s a very big problem, psychologically and socially.”
That resonance has translated to an institutional empathy that might shock Americans.
This “institutional empathy” is very apparent in the breadth and advocacy of the Italian Celiac Association, the AIC (Associazione Italiana Celiachia). Founded in 1979 via parents of celiac children at a time when little was known about celiac disease and it was erroneously thought to be a “pediatric condition”, its goals were to understand what celiac disease really was, including the long periods of misdiagnosis for patients, and to find safe and delicious gluten free products for celiacs to eat in Italy.
Today the AIC’s goals and advocacy has expanded considerably, as it now also creates papers on celiac disease, lobbies the government for testing, accommodations, and more, and surveys the celiac population for areas to improve living with the condition. It also helps with training standards for restaurants, hotels, and bakeries to fully understand the breadth of what safe gluten free eating is for celiacs, and much more. There are now 21 associated AICs within Italy, all of which support not only the patients via advocacy, but also push forward new research studies about the disease.
In addition to the wonderful work of the AIC, alternative flours are prevalent in Italy as well and have been part of Italian cuisine for centuries. In the nineteenth century, an Italian agronomist noted about Tuscany that “the fruit of the chestnut tree is practically the sole subsistence of our highlanders” (Targioni-Tozzetti, pub. 1802, The Cambridge World History of Food).
And in the twentieth century, Adam Maurizio, who wrote a seminal book on the history of edible vegetables in 1932 (called L’histoire de l’alimentation végétale depuis la préhistoire jusqu’à nos jours, for those inclined) discussed chestnut trees as being available not just for the fruit of the tree, but also for making into bread when grinding that fruit into flour.
Unlike in North America, where these new flours are trendy but not firmly braided into our history, Italians have been using ground corn, chestnuts and chickpeas as substitutes for hundreds of years.
As with the other gluten free cards I offer, this detailed gluten free card was written in detail in English, then translated into Italian by native speakers. It includes not only wheat, barley, and rye, but also the other grains with gluten (kamut or farro) used in Italian food. And it aims to help celiacs travel safely, and with comfort that their needs are going to be explained to native Italian speakers even if they don’t speak the language.
Note: The card is available for purchase via trustworthy 3rd party site that uses https, so you know your information is safe. I am not gathering emails or information for anyone who buys the card.
I used several different translation cards on my travels, and I still got sick. I may be more sensitive than some celiacs, but even a small amount of contaminated oil for frying, or wheat-thickened sauce in the food, is enough to make me ill for days. And regardless of whether we feel it or not, ingesting any amount of gluten is a problem if we are celiac.
This card is different because:
✅ Immediate download, sized specifically for mobile. You can save it to your phone and have it with you as you travel, or you can print it out and laminate it to take along. I will also send a second downloadable file, a PDF version that is easy to print, with English on one side and Italian on the other so that you can follow along.
✅ It uses local ingredients and lists of what you can/cannot eat help you eat safely, not just “I can’t eat gluten”.
✅ Unlike less-detailed cards, this card explains that surfaces or oils that have cross-contact with gluten are also unsafe.
✅ It is researched by a celiac and goes through two sets of translations to ensure accuracy.
An English translation of the card will be emailed to you after your purchase. A big thanks to Alanna Tyler and Letizia Mattiacci for their help in translating this card.
While the card above contains the safest way to communicate celiac disease in Italy, here are a few quick phrases you can also use:
I have celiac disease and I cannot eat gluten. Do you have anything that’s gluten free?
Soffro di celiachia e sono intollerante al glutine, ha qualcosa che sia senza glutine?
What gluten free options can I try?
Quali opzioni senza glutine mi può raccomandare?
I have celiac disease and eat a gluten free diet. What can I eat from your menu?
Soffro di celiachia e seguo una dieta senza glutine. Quali opzioni di menù posso avere?
For the most part, the following suggestions are for you to be able to walk into restaurants that are not specifically gluten-free, but that have options for you on the menu.
As with the other gluten free guides I’ve written, I find it far more satisfying to eat safely where I can, versus sequester myself in GF restaurants all the time. Yes, it’s great to know things are safe to eat in those dedicated GF kitchens but the point of travel is to connect with other humans and learn about their culture and food— to me this is best done in general restaurants to the extent possible.
Fresh vegetables and Meat Always an Option!
Even when not on the menu, most restaurants will have a simple dish of steamed vegetables served with lemon. In the event you cannot find a side dish that works for your stomach, the chef will almost always oblige. Type of vegetables will vary depending on the season, but have in my experience always tasted better than at home.
Many of the meals at lunchtime that I enjoyed were a version of whatever meat they had that day alongside some delicious steamed vegetables and a salad.
Gluten is a huge part of Italian cuisine, and while there are some wonderful options that are naturally gluten free — and some great celiac-friendly modifications available — the reality is that most of the food has something we can’t eat.
I wanted to list out a bunch of those dishes, just to make sure you have them in mind when you travel there.
This app didn’t exist when I initially wrote my celiac guide to Italy, but as it’s an excellent guide for your time in the country, I wanted to make sure I included it. The AIC app is the official app of the AIC (Associazione Italiana Celiachia).
It costs about $4.99 USD for 2 weeks of access, which you can only do twice before being prompted to join the AIC if you want more. So for shorter-term travellers, this is a great option, one that includes a searchable database of certified safe restaurants and shops, divided by location. It also includes hotels, bed and breakfasts, campsites, and non-grocery shop retailers that also sell gluten free products or specialize in celiac-friendly eats.
This app plus a celiac translation card for Italy will be all you need when enjoying the many fantastic (SAFE!) options in the country.
Their official app page is here. Apple version of the app here. Google Play version here.
With the app doing heavy lifting, I haven’t put together a ‘restaurants in’ section — though readers are often writing and asking for one, so I may do so for dedicated GF spots in Italy soon if health allows.
Until then, there are other guides to head to if you want to do some trip planning:
As for gluten free products, Italy is a true haven of options. As part of the EU, strict labeling laws apply in Italy, and only products under 20ppm can be marked “gluten free.”
Every supermarket I visited had gluten free basics, with larger ones (like Aldi or Coop) offering a selection I can only wish I had at home. As with the UK, supermarkets often have their own “free from” / “senza glutine” lines, and some of the best Italian pasta brands, (Granoro and Le Veneziane) offer gluten free pastas for purchase. I also can share that I ate more gluten free breadsticks than I knew what to do with during my time in Italy.
Also similar to elsewhere in Europe: pharmacies are a great spot to stock up on gluten free food, unlike in North America.
Other fully GF spots that had a huge selection of gluten free products:
For long list of celiac shops in Italy, see Celiachia Italia’s list here.
Gluten-Free Italian: Over 150 Irresistible Recipes without Wheat — from Crostini to Tiramisu, by Jacqueline Mallorca. Covers the basics with easy substitutions, and lovely photography to accompany the recipes.
For more gluten-free guides please see my full gluten free travel page.
Jodi is a former lawyer turned award-winning travel writer and photographer who shares resources and stories from a decade of eating and living abroad. Her expertise has led to features in the New York Times, National Geographic, BBC Travel, CNN, The Guardian, and more. Jodi also has celiac disease, and her longform gluten free guides and translation cards (over 17,000 cards sold!) have helped fellow celiacs eat safely as they travel.
Following a lumbar puncture that left her disabled in 2017, her work has shifted to focus on curiosity, chronic pain, and the challenges we all face when life changes drastically. She was named a 'Most Influential Health Advocate' of 2023, and also sits on the Board of Directors for the Spinal CSF Leak Foundation. Please see the About page for more.
