<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

We recently had a nice trip to Italy and I took along advice from the LIST
to help with finding food, etc.  Farmacies did, indeed, have gluten-free
pastas and flours, some with a label from Dr. Schar, with some sort of
diacritical mark over the "a".  Not spelled Schaer, but perhaps the
spelling is only on the Italian version of the packaging.

I also took the advice of one of the list members and enjoyed the Italian
prosciutto ham, which is excellent and contains no MSG and no sodium
nitrites.  When at the airport in Rome, I decided to spend our remaining
lira on some prosciutto to bring home. It says on the package that it is
salt cured - and it is very salty.  There were sealed plastic packages, and
I bought $16 worth.  When arriving in Newark airport I blythely mentioned
the ham on my customs sheet - only to find that the USDA and Customs
offices do not consider salt curing adequate and will not let the stuff
into the country.  My husband and I accepted the ruling without argument,
but opened one package and scarfed down $8 worth of ham on the spot, rather
than have it go in the garbage can at the customs stand.

So, friends, learn from my stupid mistake and just eat the ham when you are
in the country, but don't try to bring it home.  The prosciutto in Ithaca's
excellent grocery stores has sodium nitrite added, (similar to US bacon and
most ham products, and that does  a number on my gut.  Sometimes you just
can't win...

Gayle Kennedy,  Ithaca, NY