<p>Knew that would get everybody’s attention. We will be in Venice in early summer and DD will be joining us. Unfortunately (or fortunately, since we finally discovered what was causing her symptoms and she knows what not to eat to avoid them), she is gluten-intolerant. So three questions: </p>
<p>1) Has the gluten-free craze hit Italy and are there appropriate alternative-grain pastas available in restaurants?
a) How do you even say “gluten-intolerant” or “celiac” in Italian? </p>
<p>2) What popular dishes common to the area would be possibilities for such a dietary restriction? </p>
<p>3) Any suggestions as to a good place to stay for 3 people in Venice? BB’s would be OK also. H has been scouring the Web and has not been having as much luck as he would like. We’d like to stay within $150 a day for room (or is this a pipe dream?).</p>
<p>While I haven’t been to Italy myself, I have heard that many restaurants have gluten free pasta on the menu there. I purchase corn pasta that is imported from Italy and it says ‘senza glutine’ which I presume means gluten free in Italian.</p>
<p>Is your daughter gluten-intolerant or celiac? There is a difference. Has she had blood tests and biopsy demonstrating celiac disease?</p>
<p>Someone with celiac has to avoid ANY gluten, no matter how minute the amount, and the health consequences can be serious over time.</p>
<p>Someone with gluten intolerance can afford some measure of contamination and the consequences are often more short term. I am assuming this is not an allergy with anaphylaxis.</p>
<p>@Vot123: 1.a) Gluten-free is “senza glutine”; celiac is “celiaco”</p>
<p>2.) As for what to order, she could try to stick with local seafood, poultry and meat dishes cooked without any sort of breadcrumb crust, and local vegetables, sauteed or steamed. Also soups without pasta in them. In the absence of other choices she can always go with the caprese salad, which is ubiquitous in Italy.</p>
<p>Of all the countries in Europe Italy is probably the best one for celiacs. Italian companies produce a huge variety of glutenfree pasta and cookies. Celiac disease is common and many people know and understand it.
Even if glutenfree pasta is not available at some place, there are many rice and seafood dishes. You should not have a problem at all.</p>
<p>My friends’ daughter has Celiac and just came back from a semester abroad in Italy. While there she also visited many other countries and did fine. She occasionally posts on CC, I’ll ask her to contact you if you’d like.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the suggestions! I now have some leads to keep me busy, and can tell D that she will not be reduced to eating salads and grilled chicken or fish for the duration while her parents thoughtlessly feast on gluten-goodies right in front of her. </p>
<p>If anybody has any suggestions on places to stay in Venice where they’ve had good experiences, I’d still love to hear about them!</p>
<p>When you go to the Home page of the website linked above, you can click on the British flag to convert the website into English; unfortunately, the message you get is that the site is being updated but keep checking…</p>
<p>I saw the English flag, but as you said it’s a dead end… I fear it will not be updated soon.
Also the website of the second restaurant is quite messed up and it says “under construction”… Anyway at least you have the address and phone number.</p>