Italy

Italy was a very easy place to travel to with Celiac Disease. I am grateful to the gluten free community for all their suggestions. Almost everywhere had gluten free options and you barely needed to say gluten free before the staff at any restaurant we went to put you at ease instantly. Everyone spoke English, so I never needed to use my translation card. You can tell they are trained very differently there and have a very good understanding of safe gluten free eating. I have never felt so comfortable with my kids eating out. I mean over the top cautious everywhere we went without us even asking. My kids absolutely loved being able to eat such amazing food in Italy without any issues.

We visited Venice, Florence, Rome and Positano. Florence and Rome were definitely the easiest and had the most abundant gluten free food and gelato options. I would say Positano was not our favorite place for food but quite spectacular scenery! We made reservations for dinners and maybe one or two for lunch depending on where we were going and how crowded we knew it would be at those locations. I think the ideal time to go is in May or September. It was quite crowded and hot while we were there at the end of June/beginning of July.

Venice

Brunch Cafe
This is a small cafe with many gluten free options. The pancakes were delicious!

Grom
100% gluten free gelato shop! This was our very first stop when we arrived in Venice, Italy from New York. We used to have one in NYC so we were excited to finally get a chance to try it again.

Trattoria Povoledo
We sat out back with a table right on the canal. The food was good and the staff was so nice and knowledgeable.

Florence

Ciro and Sons
This is a family owned restaurant and probably one of our favorites. The food was incredible and the staff was beyond knowledgeable. We got to meet one of the brothers/owners Giuseppe and had the best waiter named Alex. They were so beyond careful that they actually wouldn’t allow my daughter who has an allergy to almonds to order something with Nutella even though she can eat Nutella. I was very impressed. I say order pasta here!

Mister Pizza
This was one of our favorite pizza places. We sat inside because of the heat but there is seating right outside with a view of the Duomo. We were quite hungry as we had just walked up and down the stairs of Giotto’s Bell Tower. So it was the perfect place to refuel with some delicious pizza!

Antica Gelateria Fiorentina
This is a 100% gluten free gelato place. We loved it!

Mama Eat
We had heard amazing things about this restaurant. However we didn’t have the best experience. We were put upstairs and we felt very isolated. The service wasn’t as great as it was at other places. My husband who will eat anything that is put in front of him actually had to send his steak back because it wasn’t cooked. I have been with him for half of my life and have never seen him do that before. As my oldest said her steak was practically “mooing” when it was put on the table. One of my kids had chicken fingers and said they were okay. Overall this wasn’t the best experience for us, although I know so many people rave about this place.

Ristorante Lorenzo de Medici
This was a great place for pizza and pasta! It was hard not to have pizza every where we went as it was so good. The staff was wonderful and knowledgeable and the food was so yummy.

Sgrano
This is one of the best places we ate lunch at in all of Italy. The only mistake is we didn’t eat here more than once. We all had amazing sandwiches here and we tried the fried dough with cheese and fresh truffle which was out of this world! Everything is 100% gluten free.

Rome

Cimarra 4
This was one of our top two favorite places for pizza in Rome. The crust was a bit thinner and more crunchy here but one of my husbands favorites!

The entire menu is gluten free except for the pizza which they can make with gluten or gluten free. If it is gluten free, it is clearly marked with a small Italian flag. Besides pizza, they have lots of appetizers, pastas and desserts.

Fiocco De Neve
This was the absolute best gelato we had in all of Italy! It’s 100% gluten free, with choices of cones and the flavors were all incredible. My favorite was Bacio (like the chocolate Baci). I have never tasted anything better in my life! My son fell in love with the Snickers flavor.

Gelato Trevi
This was another 100% gluten free gelato place right near Trevi Fountain. There were tons of flavors and probably our second favorite gelato place.

Le Altre Farine Del Mulino
This was a 100% gluten free bakery not far from the Vatican. Their baked goods were quite delicious and they had some other small options like arancini, slices of pizza and lasagna.

Pandali
This is a small little cafe and bakery. It was 100% gluten free. They had salads, sandwiches and baked goods.

Pizza in Trevi
This was the other of our top two favorite pizza places Rome. The staff was so friendly and the pizza was really delicious! My kids are a bit boring and always go with a regular pizza, but I had a pizza with arugula, fresh tomatoes and burrata and it was one of the best pizzas I have ever had.

La Soffita Renovatio
We were supposed to have dinner here but ended up having lunch instead as it was close to some of the sights we were seeing that day. Although it is not 100% gluten free, they are AIC gluten free which is the Italian certification for safe gluten free restaurants. We were told to have their calzones here so the kids did try that and pizza, of course, but they also had a small variety of other dishes. They are known for their pizza and calzones so that is what we tried. This was a nice restaurant for lunch or dinner.

New Food Gluten Free-Ponte Sisto
The kids picked out a bunch of gluten free pastries from here.

Positano

Chez Black
This is a well know restaurant visited by many celebrities. The choices for gluten free were limited and personally we didn’t see what all the fuss was about. Maybe we chose the wrong meals but we were very underwhelmed. The staff was super nice, though.

Restaurant L’Incanto
This was a seafood restaurant right on the beach. The atmosphere was very nice. The food was just okay.

Yogoloso
This was a tiny place right near the bus stop near our AirBnb. The options were limited but they couldn’t have been nicer here and were very accommodating.