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Thanks to everyone that responded. It was a tremendous and very helpful response! What a wonderful group!


 We have traveled in the British Isles with our family and it was quite
easy.  
In another small town I was amazed they offered wheat free pasta and
this was not a fancy restaurant.

I would also recommend the
Netherlands for a family trip if you are in England.   many, many restaurants have gluten free
menus and the Albert Hein grocery chain has many, many GF (and DF as I
need both) items clearly labeled with visual image labels.  The
NatuurWinkel  store carry Schar and other GF brands and are quite
widely available.  Plus they carry the best German made GF,DF milk
chocolate you can imagine but that is another story!  We spent most of
our time in Amsterdam but did two trips to small towns and usually
stayed a week or so and found the groceries available all over.

Italy is the easiest country - so many diagnosed celiacs that lots of folks
know what it is.  Many restaurants can accommodate you , or will prepare the
gf pasta or pizza curst you can buy at the pharmacy and then carry in to
them.  The pharmacies have lots of gf food on hand, and will order things
for you which are delivered within 24 hours.

Greece worked out ok for us - lots of fresh fish  and grilled chicken -
souvlaki over there is not usually served on bread - it is served with rice
and French fries.  However, do not order a hamburger without the bu - they
typically make their hamburger patties with dried breadcrumbs (called Rusk)
the way we would prepare a meatloaf.

I have no first hand experience with England.

I can say Germany was pretty easy and Denmark was very easy.  France a bit
harder, but not impossible.

We went to Paris & London 2 years ago & found it easier to eat
GF there because they are better at labeling.  I hear that the easiest
place is up in Finland where they offere GF buns at McDonalds.

We have travelled to Italy twice with no problems at all.  GF options
are easy to find in most restaurants (a lot have pasta if you ask) and
the pharmacies and grocery stores carry products as well.  We were
briefly in Greece and I found it difficult just because the alphabet
was so difficult for me to understand (in Italy it is sin glutina).  We
also had good luck in Barcelona, Spain (even found GF gelato cones and
sandwiches on Las Ramblas) and southern France.  But Italy is
definitely easy to manage on a GF diet. The only difficulty is
breakfast- we brought our own cereal.

Italy is very easy -- they are very aware of celiac and GF.. order
special meals from the airline, and carry non-perishable snacks for you
for emergencies if you are out touring and the kids get hungry or need
an energy boost. I usually carry some energy or granola type bars, some
nuts, and the small snack sizes of peanut butter, a package of GF
crackers,and some cookies of some sort - Pamelas cookies come in a nice
size travel box.  Keep a few things in a backpack or shoulder bag for
each days travels.  But main meals in restaurants should be no problem.

My daughter just did this. Oddly enough, Italy was the easiest. She saidshe just pointed to herself and said "celiac" and they nodded and out camethe GF pasta. 
England was good too. The hosts pointed to what she could eat. She
did fine.
The worst was France. There were a few cases of restaurants thatREALLY did not want to be told what you wanted to eat, and theygot snotty about it. There were days she did not eat much.

We have travelled to Italy, London and Greece and my son has celiac. 
Very important to take a restaurant card in the local language.  I made
several copies just in case the waiter took it back to the kitchen and
it was hard to get back.  I try to take some GF snacks and bread or
bagel so he has something til we locate some local food.

 

Italy does not cook with flour in all their sauces lilke we do so it
was not so difficult.  They are pretty familiar with celiac and test
children as they are entering school and offer GF lunch option.  My son
ate risotto, salads, grilled meats.  I do not think back then he was
able to get Gf pasta but he did quite well.  He ate gelato everywhere. 
We usually looked at the menus to see if there were good options.  

In Greece my son ate a lot of greek salads, grilled foods but most the restaurants were familiar with GF.

 

London had GF foods in the little supermarkets.  My hotel supplied breakfast and supplied my son with many GF choices. 

The restuarants were fine and familiar with GF. 

When you are going, I suggest to contact the list and you will be able to get specific suggestions on places to eat.  


There are places in London that actually offer GF menus.

Italy is the greatest. They are very knowledgeable. GF options are wonderful including gelato. We spent a week in Florence. 

Read The Gluten Free Girl And The Chef blog about their honeymoon there. Inspiring and  reassuring. 

Italy was great for gluten free.  I could always find a phamacia with
good gluten free items, cookies, pasta, pizza, etc.  Then, many
sit-down restaurants could accommodate me being gluten free.  I usually
ate risotto or gnocchi.  Several places said to let them know in
advance and they could give me gf pizza.  I had some good gf gelatto
with cones as well.  I just took the card off the internet and would
hand it to the restaurant.  I never had a problem with any food served
in a restaurant.

I hear from good authorities that England and Ireland are highly GF
friendly--Ireland even has dedicated GF restaurants, apparently.  I
also hear that Italy is quite good and that many restaurants have GF
offerings, including pasta.   I would certainly expect that there are
published guides to GF dining in European countries.

I just went to Italy last summer and compared to the US gluten free was
EASY!  Every pharmacy has bread, crackers and other gf packaged
foods.   The alementari  (local delis for meat and cheese) and markets
make it easy.   All the restaurants knew how
to feed us.  I ate VERY
well.   Much easier than here at home.  Even skipping the pasta, pizza
and bread left PLENTY of delicious and safe choices.   Everyone seemed
to know what gluten-free  meant.




      

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