Teulada, Sardinia
This year we holidayed in Italy, well Sardinia to be precise, so i thought I'd do my usual and pass on some tips for visiting Italy if you have allergies (specifically milk, egg, peanut and sesame allergies).
Every time we visit a new country, I try to write up how we found visiting with allergies. These articles are generally more about what can be bought and a general overview of what we encountered rather than an in-depth review of restaurants we visited. This is mainly because we choose to self-cater on holiday, partly because eating out can be stressful and who wants extra stress on holiday, but also because it's what we prefer.
I don't know about you, but every time we think about a holiday, way before booking, I start googling for any tips of what the destination might be like to navigate with allergies. Will I be able to buy my staples, or will it just be a nightmare with an allergen in much of the food on offer? How will the labelling be, can we trust it? Since I always look for allergy information, I started writing up our findings, just in case it may help another family have a lovely holiday.
This year we chose to visit Italy, we have visited once before as a family but that was years ago and all I can recall was that Misura products are great! On this occasion, we stayed near Pula in Sardinia, which is just south of Cagliari, but we mainly shopped in a smallish Conad and Crai Extra supermarkets, which I believe are shops you can find all over Italy. So hopefully my post might be of use should you visit any part of Italy.
I'd spoken to the lovely Alexa (Allergy Mum UK) who is Italian just before the trip so had some good advice on brands to look out for, and what extra supplies to take. She was clear that you need to check about groundnut oil being used to fry things and bread being difficult to source. I always pack plenty of breads like bagel thins, flatbreads and pittas (as these don't get too squashed) because it can be really hard to find safe sesame-free bread on holiday, as well as biscuits, chocolate, a cake (yes I'm that person who bakes the day before going on holiday!). I also pack marmite, Tartex veggie spread, vegetable stock, as well as dairy-free margarine and soft cheese. I find that if you pack these in a cool bag in a suitcase that goes in the hold, they keep perfectly well until you reach your destination.
First thing's first – we had a very early flight so I packed homemade croissants and smoothies to have at the airport, then snacks for the plane and sandwiches for our arrival in Italy. Whilst it may be possible to find something safe in an airport, that is quite unusual, and I like to know that we have something guaranteed safe with us. Similarly for the way home I will keep some of the safe wraps or pittas along with freezer bags to make some sandwiches to keep us going. Remember, it is an un-necessary risk to eat an inflight meal on an airplane if you have serious food allergies, it really isn't somewhere you'd want an allergic reaction….
We found the allergy-friendly food provision ok in the supermarkets, although the Conad was better stocked than the Crai, especially in terms of dairy-free options. Thanks to European regulations, allergen labelling are as good as you'd hope, although lots of labels didn't have any English on them so you may want to learn the basic words and have a google translation app on hand for peace of mind.
The brand Valsoia seemed widely available with delicious yoghurts, dairy-free cheeses, puddings and ice creams available. It's a brand to look out for (they also sell it on Ocado in the UK).
On the whole, there were some dairy-free products available (yoghurts, milks, cheeses) but nowhere as many as you'd get in France.
There were a fair few vegan options like meat replacements, burgers etc. Snack items like crisps were limited (lots contained milk) but these artisanal Taralli savoury biscuits were a really nice find and worth looking out for.
We did find that Italy seems to be one of those countries that seems to confuse a dairy-allergy with lactose intolerance. The dairy-free fridge often had the lactose free, or low lactose products and it was common for parmesan to be offered as dairy-free when in reality it may be low in lactose but it certainly contains milk protein. Lots of menus we looked at would class some cheeses as dairy-free when they patently are not – so that is definitely something to look out for!
Talking about menus; as is our habit, we spent ages looking at all the menus of local restaurants, or those we could find, before going on holiday. Maybe this is just for Southern Sardinia, but we found it hard to find any allergen menu online for most restaurants, so it was difficult to pre-plan. Little S did find a local pizza restaurant with allergens noted on the menu and we could ascertain that the pizza marinara didn't contain any milk so at least the pizza base was ok (top tip: if they sell a marinara which is tomato sauce, garlic and oregano on a pizza base which is dairy-free/vegan then you know the base doesn't contain milk and there will definitely be something to eat!), and so that was our destination of choice. As always, we generally feel slightly on edge when eating out and that was compounded by the fact that most people we came across did not speak English (again maybe this is just the part of Sardinia we visited) so getting our message across seemed difficult. Luckily, little S studied Italian at school and she managed to do all the ordering and checking ingredients etc with ease, which I'm sure also helped the restaurant staff take her questions seriously – they were also overjoyed that she could speak Italian 😊 and beamed at her whilst she was speaking, and the marinara pizza was absolutely delicious too.
Pizza Marinara at Pizzeria Stele di Nora
As mentioned above the Misura brand is worth seeking out – they sell some products such as cornetti and biscuits that are free-from milk and eggs and also don't contain nuts, and they're really nice too. They're also very tasty, although the cornetti are definitely more like a little brioche than a croissant!
As expected, bread was difficult and we didn't see any pre-packed loaves that didn't contain (or may contain) milk or sesame, however in the bakery section of Crai there was one safe loaf of fresh bread with no may contain like lots of the others. But on the whole we relied on the supplies we'd brought with us.
Like most European countries, the ice lollies are generally the Walls brand and so they usually contain (or may contain) milk, however much to our delight the fruit granitas sold on the beach by the sellers with little carts was totally allergen-free and a very welcome refreshing option on a hot day. The coconut seemed the most popular with the Italian tourists, and once we tasted it, we could see why!
So overall, how easy was Sardinia with food allergies? I'd have to say it wasn't the easiest, and without any Italian it would have been quite tricky. Looking at the menus in restaurants we walked past, it would have been difficult to eat out more than once or twice, unless you're happy eating pizza marinara or pasta napolitana every day! And certainly, be wary of the confusion between lactose free and dairy-free. But the beaches were amazing, and the sea was so warm, it was a really relaxing destination. The shops are pretty well stocked with suitable products, so yes it is a good holiday destination if you have allergies to content with.
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