Pizza! Pasta! Pastries!
Imagine visiting Italy and being tempted by all kinds of wheat-filled goodness and NOT being able to eat it due to a gluten sensitivity? Traveling to Italy seems impossible for someone who can’t eat gluten (due to celiac disease or a gluten intolerance) but it is actually quite do-able IF you know what you are doing…You might be surprised to learn that many Italians themselves can’t consume gluten (there’s a high incidence genetically of celiac).
The thing about managing an allergy to gluten while traveling is that it can take a lot of time-consuming forward planning. That’s what makes a gluten-free Italy tour a dream for someone with these challenges. I’ve seen a few companies try to start these in the past and was thrilled to hear from Dream of Italy subscriber Gina DiPrima that she has started GF Journeys, a travel service designed specifically for those with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.
Her first Italy tour Gluten-Free Italy: Travels through Tuscany, Parma and Rome takes place this October. The 7-day tour departs October 14, 2014, from Florence, Italy. Price is $3125 per person (airfare not included) with a discount offered prior to February 28, 2014. Special rates are available to travel agents.
Already working in Italy travel planning, DiPrima was inspired to start these tours when her 5-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Celiac.
“Finding a safe meal for her at home can sometimes prove difficult. Then I pictured myself having to do that overseas, with every meal, and in some semblance of a foreign language. It hardly seemed worth the extensive effort, even for me, a travel planner by profession.I resolved not to let gluten stand in the way of the many rewards our international travels have given our daughters, and us. Nor would it stop us from enjoying a great meal,” she says.
“This is what fueled my passion for GF travel. This group tour — GF Journeys’ Gluten-Free Italy — is the result. Because really, who better than the Italians — people who love food and who love it when you love their food — to understand how fundamental a great meal is to good living?”
Photo by Nina Matthews, flickr.com