"Calabria - an excellent place for Celiacs" Calabria by Rachel972

This time we drove through Calabria and Basilicata, much in the Sila mountains of Calabria. Only landscapes, mountains, forest and spring flowers, no man made art and history, we needed some rest from that. This country is the best for Celiacs. I prepared a print for restaurants, and practiced to say "Sono Celiaca", because in other countries and languages the waiters stared at that paper that has too much information.

http://www.celiactravel.com/restaurant-cards.html

At every place the waiters knew exactly what I was talking about, showed me which items I can select from the menu, or could tell me what ingredients were in the dish. Several waiters had family members with celiac, and were glad to meet a stranger with the same problem. My husband said that they were just being nice and saying "yes" to please me, but I felt that they meant what they were saying. I got plenty of choice, and felt better on the whole trip than often at home.

Of course we didn't go to Pizzerias. But we did go to Pizzeria-Restaurants. There my husband could get his pizza or pasta, and I got risotto or grilled fish or meat, and salads, always without croutons. (That happened to me in Spain, where they brought me a special vegetable soup "without flour" but with bread croutons).

The regular hotel breakfast wasn't for me at all, except for the good coffee. There were all kinds of pastry, most of it sweet, with chocolate or marmalade. That's not what my husband gets at home. He did comlpain about diet, but I think he enjoyed the breakfast, which had plenty of calories but didn't fill for a long while.

I asked for an egg or cheese or ham, which really isn't on the food list of the small hotels. I said "or" because I didn't expect them to have these, but every time a got a full plate of these things. So I got a much better breakfast than my husband, and it was like that every place for all our ten day trip.

• Pros:Wonderful views and landscapes, not touristy.
• Cons:There was much more to see, we had no time.
• In a nutshell:I'll be back.