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Dear listmates,

In response to the latest dialogue regarding Italy and peoples' experience
of Coeliac Disease there, I have a different perspective to offer.

My family spent 12months in Italy in 1997. Our two boys went to a local
school; our youngest child then aged 6 has CD. We found that the school was
aware of CD and they explained that with a note from our doctor our son's
special food could be provided at lunchtimes at no extra cost. It might be
worth explaining that each child is given a hot lunch through a subsidized
system in Italy - this is very different to our "packed lunch from home"
which is the norm in Australia. So my son received through this system his
GF pasta, rolls, crispbreads as part of a normal school procedure. I too was
told that all school children are screened for CD and that Italy has a very
high incidence of CD.

During the year and as our Italian became better, we learned that the
Italian Health system provides free GF products to those who are registered
residents. To obtain this service one must frequent the public clinic on a
certain day, once a month I think (this is a very Italian way of organising
things!!) We were more than impressed with the range of products available
in Italy. The GF products available surpassed those here in Australia in
quality and in price! Especially the pastas, sweet biscuits, breads
including Baguettes, foccacias, pizza bases and the dry mixes, although we
mostly bought the prepared breads in preference to baking our own. All the
products we bought were from the pharmacies, and are supplied through
catalogues. Some pharmacies carry limited stock on their shelf along with
specialist diabetic foods and protein reduced foods. We would ask to order a
product and from the catalogue would make our selections - the pharmacy
phoned through the order and within 4 -6 hours depending on when you ordered
them they would arrive at the pharmacy. Once we understood the system we had
no problem in using it.

One company specialising in GF foods is called Dr Schaar and has a web site
at http://www.schaer.com/ and if you are in Europe or Canada you can order
foods. They print a magazine for kids in Italian complete with games,
recipes, profiles etc. I think this company actually is German, though we
never managed to find it there when we travelled north. Another company is
called Bio-Aglut, I think, but don't quote me as there were several and my
memory may not serve me well.

The joy for my son of being able to order a meal at a restaurant that was a
'normal' meal still remains with him and he often asks for bread like he had
in Italia! We begun our trip using a translation card as has been discussed
here many times but as time went on, we all became more than confident about
which foods we safe or not. We had no gluten accidents that we know of.

So each of us has a different experience although ours were not had in Rome.
There is no question of the pollution of Rome or most of Europe and much of
the US for that matter, and from where we live in the Blue Mountains west of
Sydney, it too, looks dreadful on the most beautiful of days with a black
smog cloud hovering ominously above. This unfortunately is our modern world.

Happy gluten free living where ever you are...

Carole