Venice

Venice can be a lonely place for anyone GF.  I have been on a GF diet for close to ten years and have been pretty successful at it (or so I say), however, for me personally, Venice served as a cold reminder of how much I miss freshly baked non-GF bread.  With all the advances in GFF cuisine, the bread has come miles from where we started, howeverm it is one of the items that still has a way to go.  So, walking through the beautiful little streets of Venice I could not escape the smells coming out of the little pizza joints, stores and restaurants, but the most difficult for me was the smell of freshly baked bread (pastries and croissants as well).  With that said, I was very lucky to stumble upon a small store (MEA LIBERA TUTTI) that caters to us GF divas.  The owner was not only very friendly and approachable, but she is a wealth of knowledge of anything GF.  She deals with non-GFF Venice every day and is more than willing to share the lessons that she has learned.  She became my guide to GFF Venice - for which I am eternally grateful. 

MEA LIBERA TUTTI (check out the store on Facebook)

CANNAREGIO 3803 (but when looking for it, ask for Calle Racchetta / Priuli street to find it since Cannaregio is the area the store is located in, not the actual street name)
TEL. 041 5210454
mealiberatutti@gmail.com 

The places below are not the only places that are supposedly GFF in Venice.  I came across some that have a limited GFF menu (such as Osteria Anticopolo on Ruga Realto 778), but such places are not necessarily 100% GF, because of the possibility of cross-contamination.  However, all the places below are guaranteed GF and are constantly inspected to make sure that they stay that way.

RESTAURANTS/BARS:

Osteria All’Ombra

Cannaregio 5603

TEL. 377 8318399

Cico Bar

San Polo 1960/a

TEL. 041 720603

FOOD STORES:
Salumeria Bellenzier

San Polo 1472

TEL. 041 5228433

Lorenzo Gastronomia

San Marco Cl. Dei Fabbri

TEL. 041 5232682

HOTELS AND B&BS:

Hotel Mignon

Cannaregio 4535

TEL. 041 5237388

ICE-CREAM SHOPS:

Gelateria Grom

Cannaregio 3844

TEL. 041 2602349

Gelateria Grom

Campo San Barnaba

TEL. 041 0991751

Travel

I would not call myself a world-traveler, but I do enjoy traveling and do so at any occasion I  get.  No matter what county I travel to, I start by printing my handy-dandy GF Restaurant Card (http://www.celiactravel.com/cards) – THESE ARE MY LIFESAVERS.  Throughout almost ten years of gluten-free traveling, I have learned that until recently, cruises were the best way to travel (especially for travel outside of the US).  With all the difficulties of finding GFF restaurants, walking up the ship and discussing your diet with a designated chef is soooooooo much easier.  Even with my tendency to get sea-sick, cruising was my way to GFF travel.  Maybe to some extent it still is, but with the rest of the world slowly catching up to the GF needs, I have been more inclined to leave the comfort of the ship and try “conventional” travel.  Check out my entries on this blog from my GF adventures.  I will also include any city or port that I have visited while cruising, especially if I came across a great GFF place.    

Welcome

Traveling while on a gluten-free diet can be difficult.  I wanted to start this blog for two reasons.  One, to keep track of the places that are gluten-free friendly (GFF) to refer back to when I return to that city/country.  Two, share this blog with my gluten-free friends that are traveling to the cities/countries I have been to.  So, enjoy and feel free to send me any other places that you know of that are GFF and I’ll add them to my list.