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

Here is the summary of the 20 odd responses I received regarding travel
to Padua and Tuscany.  I will quote some of them that would be of
interest to others that are traveling in Italy.   Interestingly, ALL
were regarding Tuscany and Florence, no one wrote about Padua.

> Cannot help you with Italy however I highly recommend the movie, Tea w/
> Mussolini.  Superb.
>
> Actually, people in Italy are tested for Celiac by the time they are 4
> years old.
>
> My Italian friend said that it is a more "common"(?) disease there and
> it is very easy to find proper food -
>
> Please, please post whatever you get in responses!!! My celiac daughter is
> getting married on July l8th and they are going on their honeymoon to Italy
>
> She tells me that it is fairly easy to eat GF in Italy.
>
> You can get risotto with everything, instead of pasta and the cheeses are
> pure. She frequently had a GF salad, cheese, apples and/or marinara sauce
> with risotto. She ate alot of fresh fruit, as well as fish and various
meats.
>
> But she would also like to know of GF purchased items by brand name. She
> wasn't aware of having CD at the time, so she is a bit nervous
>
>> You can find a good accomodation in the following farm located in
>> alittle town of Tuscany: Azienda agrituristica il Colombaio. The farm
>> provideGF diet.
>>
>>  You can see the farm in its WEB site:
>> http://www.val.it/aziende/colombaio/. For
>>
>>  general information about restaurants, hotels products
>> GF you can visit the site of the
>>
>> "Associazione italiana celiachia": http://www.nettuno.it/fiera/aic/.

(NOTE from Anne.... I booked an apartment at this farm.  The proprietor
is a celiac and it sounds wonderful.)

> I think she would be willing to translate it.  She is leaving for
> Italy on Thursday, so if you can send it to me ASAP, I will pass it on
> to her.  She might end up translating it on the plane and then
> emailing it back to me from Italy.
>
>> My family and I spent a year living in Italy in 1997 and our youngest son
>> aged 8 is a Coeliac. I, like you was a little worried about the
availability
>> of GF products, as well as the language difficulties, despite being able to
>> speak Italian moderately well.
>>
>> However on arrival all my concerns were laid to rest. Italy is absolutely
>> fabulous for Coeliacs. Italy in fact has one of the highest rates of
Coeliac
>> disease in the world and has done far more to provide for that population
>> than anywhere else I can think of.
>>
>> There is a wide range of GF products available through the pharmacy system,
>> called 'Farmacia' (chemist)  in Italian. Some of these products are on
>> display, but even better is that Italian chemists have a remarkable
>> catalogue system of ordering. This system is excellent, often I could place
>> an order in the morning and receive it by the afternoon. Our favourite
>> supplier was DR Schaar - the range and quality of the food was mind blowing
>> and kept our little one with an endless line of new things to try. Try and
>> find a Farmacia at each of the places you stay, go in and explain what you
>> need and they will show you the range of 'produtti senza glutine' (products
>> without gluten) They can be costly, but not much more than when I do a big
>> health food buy here in Australia, with GF Corn Flakes etc.
>>
>> For example, one can buy baguettes, sliced bread, foccacia, dinner rolls
and
>> loaves - all GF. Pastas available practically equal the types available
to a
>> non Coeliac; spirali, maccaroni, penne, tagliatelle, lasagne etc. There is
>> also a great range of sweet biscuits, crackers etc. I can send you details
>> about how to ask for these things in Italian if you don't speak it and a
>> translation for restaurants.
>>
>> Eating in restaurants is far easier than it is in France because Italian
>> food is so 'unadulterated', if you know what I mean. Sauces aren't
thickened
>> and brodo (stock) is very often home made. Dadi di brodo (stock cubes) are
>> available in the supermarkets and some have MSG (don't know the source) but
>> some are all naturali (natural). We would always be able to get something
>> GF, delicious and suitable for a slightly fussy child at every
restaurant. I
>> can't emphasise this enough - it is much easier in Italy than it is here in
>> Australia. Italians also love their food and want to go out of their way to
>> assist you to love your food too!!! All the salamis that we tried were GF,
>> most soups, except those with pasta added, all the risottos, and most of
the
>> main course meals, unless crumbed etc. The menus are detailed about what
>> ingredients are used and how the items are cooked. It really is an
enjoyable
>> experience - we travelled for three months out of the twelve and ate out
>> more or less on each of those nights. Not once did we get a problem. No
>> accidents with gluten either - a remarkable record. That's not to say we
>> weren't diligent in reading labels and explaining to people what our needs
>> were etc.
>>
>> My son even went to school at a local school where they provided lunches 3
>> out of 5 days - hot cooked lunches all GF. It appears that because there is
>> such a high rate of Coeliac in Italy the cooks know what to prepare and the
>> Italian Health System provides a rebate of some kind for those schools
>> giving special diets. We took our son to the local doctor who immediately
>> wrote a certificate. We gave this to the school and GF foods appeared
before
>> his hungry eyes!!! There is also a system where you can attain GF supplies
>> for free from the state run medical centres, but I believe this is for
>> residents only.
>
> The names of the two restaurants that we visited are:
> 1. Lafontencina on via Nazionale
> 2. Trattatoria Guelfa on via Guelfa 103R   telephone #055213306
> These are local places, not fancy, but absolutely wonderful!!!
>
> As I e-mailed before, I also had laminated cards made up in Italian and gave
> them to our server.
>
> In Italian:
> Non parlo Italian
> Sono affetta dal morbo Celiaco
> Se mangio del cibo contenente prodotti o solo tracce di grano, avena,
segala,
> orzo, crusca, malto e aceto digrano, mi sento molto male.
>
> Posso pero mangiere cibi che il cuoco per assicurarsi che il mio cibo non
> contenga nessuno dei prodotti sopra elencati e mi aiuti a sceglire un buon
> pasto.
>
> Grazie.
>
> Translation:
> I do not speak Italian.
> I have Celiac Disease.
>
> If I eat any food, product, chemical additive, or stabilizer containing even
> a trace of wheat, rye, oats, buckwheat, barley, millet, triticale, grain
> vinegar, malt, or any derivatives of these grains, I will become ill
> I am able to eat food containing corn and rice.
>
> If necessary, please check with the chef to make sure my food does not
> contain any of the ingredients listed above and help me order a meal I can
> safely enjoy.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> after much apprehension I found my month in Florence to be wonderful.
> Much easier than in America.  In a pasta culture what is NOT pasta is
> clearly fine.  Waiters were astonished at my question whether a particular
> sauce might contain flour. Of course not.  Soups didn't have bread in them
> unless they were called that.  I also found a fabulous bread substitute,
> FETTE TOSTATE, a gluten-free cracker toast, which I could buy at the
> Pharmacy at the Railroad Station (thanks, Martha Teeter) and is available
> elsewhere as well.  It tastes very good, and is a wonderful vehicle for
> whatever one might put on bread.
>
> When I got back home I found that it is available here as well, frome
> Dietary Specialties in Rochester NY (800/544-0099) as well as from
> De-Ro-Ma in Laval, Quebec (514/687-2287), which also carries Dr. Schaer
> products, which Martha Teeter had suggested I try to get in Florence but I
> could never find.
>
>> Italy has Farmacias in every neighborhood, where you can
>> obtain your GF bread, etc.  In restaurants, I found if I
>> said "no glutano" they understood.
>>
>> Happy travels!
>>
>> > One of you wrote asking me some suggestions for his holiday in Italy.
>> >
>> > I collected the following information that may be useful for other people
>> > as well
>> >
>> > Italian celiac association:  www.nettuno.it/fiera/aic
>> >
>> > Among other informations they also have the complete list of GF products
>> > under the category "prontuario". I copied here those I thought are going
>> > to be useful for people on holiday , assuming they are not going to cook;
>> > as the list is in Italian only I translated some of the headings.
>> >
>> >>  To everybody who plans to go to Italy.
>> >>
>> >>  A list of GF food products sold in Italy has been just put on WWWW
>> >>
>> >>       http://andi.casaccia.enea.it/andi/ASSO/AIC/Celia.HTM
>> >>
>> >>  It's nothing else the last issue of the list by A.I.C. (Italian Celiac
>> >>  Association).
>> >>
>> >>  Unlucky it is written in italian, but anyway I think it may be useful
>> >>  for two reasons: being untraslated the names are just as their are on
>> >>  the labels; as it is only a list it can be undertood also with a low
>> >>  level knowledge of italian, e.g: tourist with a pocket dictionary.
>> >>
>> >>  The list is partitioned in tre sublists:
>> >>
>> >>  - Dietaries allowed (GF dietaries are sold at pharmacies )
>> >>  - which Drugs are GF and which not
>> >>  - Gluten-Free products
>
> We travelled in northern italy a few years ago.  We don't speak Italian.  I
> had a short note with me in Italian translated by a friend which basically
> said that I have severe reactions to wheat and flour, but that I can eat
> rice and corn, and please help me select something from their menu which is
> safe for me to eat.  Often the waiter spoke no English, but read my note.
>
> I ended with fabulous meals, often polenta or risoto.  Things I never would
> have figured out for myself.  I had not a single gluten reaction the entire
> time.  Everyone was most generous and even made special food for me.  They
> always found a g-f dessert for me too.  One day at a very small family
> restaurant I ended up with a plate of cold cooked vegetables with vinegar.
>
> It was delicious.  Have a nice trip.
>
> 1) RESTAURANTS
> We have no list of GF restaurants, hotels, etc.
>
> The AIC (Italian Ceoliac Association http://www.nettuno.it/fiera/aic)
> has started a project for restaurants but it is just at the beginning
> (there are only a few an only in some limited areas )
> So you have to scramble trough the menu items, and show your info-card
> to the staff
> (You can find a copy of the info card issued by AIC, in italian,  at
> http://www.csrsrc.mi.cnr.it/~orto/celiachia/Cartelli.htm)
>
> Now I try to give You some guidelines to choose in the menu
> (they are the same I use for my daughter):
> Shurely no GF:
> . Obviously pasta
> . avoid sauces of any kind: they can be thickened with flour
> . "Cotoletta alla milanese" (meat) it's the same as Wienerschitzer in
> german countries  it is coated with bread crumbs !!!
> . "scaloppine" or "scaloppe", "spezzatino", "brasato" (meat) : they are
> generally flour    powdered.
> . everything is "ripieno": it means furred and bread is in the furring
> mix.
> . everything is "impanato": it means coated with bread crumbs
>
> They may be a risk for minor components as flavouring agents, glucose
> syrup, maltodestrine of unknown source:
> . ice cream
> . salami, ham,  "coppa", "mortadella"
>
> What could be safe:
> . "risotto", is rice
> . as you are going to northern Italy ( expecially in Veneto)
>
>   it is possible to find "POLENTA", it is great: it is made only with
> maize !!!.
>
>   Of course without any sauce.
> . Cheeses are always safe, except "gorgonzola" and molded cheese
>  ( I don't know how they are called exactly, I means things like that little
>   triangle of cheese wrapped in aluminium foil)
> . "bistecca" is beef-steack
> . meat and fish "alla griglia" or "alla brace" it means grilled and
>   should not be floured
> . "roast-beef" sometime written in fancy manner (nothing to do with
>   english roast-beef) meat roasted (generally not too much)
> . "costata" (meat lumb with bone) of "vitello" (veal), "maiale" (porc)
> or "agnello" (lamb)
> . fish "al cartoccio" it means: cooked, as it is, wrapped in an aluminium
foil
> . don't worry about vinegar it's from wine
> . olive oil is widely used for seasoning
>
> Of course, in such a manner the risk is not zero but I think it is
> reasonably limited
>
> 2) YOUR OWN KOOCKERY
>
> . GF dietary products are sold in pharmacies and are rather expensive.
> here is an up to date list of what you can find
> http://www.nettuno.it/fiera/aic/dati/dieteti.htm
> Of course no farmacy has all the items, it's better to look for big
> shops in towns
>
> . here:
> http://soalinux.comune.fi.it/aic/dati/prontua1.htm
> http://soalinux.comune.fi.it/aic/dati/prontua2.htm
> http://www.nettuno.it/fiera/aic/dati/aggiorn.htm
> You can find a list of safe (non dietary) products, maintained by AIC,
> You can buy them  in food stores and supermarkets.
>
> Beware: don't trust any no Italian list because products from the same
> brand can have a sligthly different composition in different countries.

 Anne again....  I hope this is readable.  This is my first attempt at a
summary of this magnitude.  I still have hopes of information regarding
the Padua area.  Thanks so much to all of you who sent information, and
to you who requested my responses, I hope this helps plan your trip.

Anne in San Antonio