Italy
:
Vegetarian
[This section is in the earliest
stages of development: 17 July 2006]
Italy in
General
Although Italy
does not appear to be blessed with a wealth of vegetarian restaurants, there are
three basic dishes that can be made suitable for vegetarians: pizza, pasta and ensalata (salad).
Whilst, almost by definition, pizza has dairy cheese (at
least mozzarella) on it, pizza romana (in Rome) and pizza
marinara (in Venice), with tomato, garlic and olive oil, does not. I found the
phrase: "Non posso mangiare
formaggio" ("I can't eat cheese")
reasonably effective, as well as "... ma senza
formaggio" ("... but without
cheese"). Pasta can be served with only garlic and olive oil, too,
although this is on the authority of my friend Alan Brice,
not from my own experience. However, fresh pasta is likely to be made with
chicken's eggs, so beware. Arrabiata sauce,
to go with pasta, is made of sweet red peppers and tomatoes, but watch out for
fishy ingredients. Watch out, too, for the pesto, which is almost
certain to contain parmesan cheese (very rarely even vegetarian). Many
moderately priced pizzerias (and possibly expensive ones too) serve good ensalatas (plain salads). Sometimes the salad is a
dish of different kinds of lettuce (ensalata
verde; green salad), or with tomatoes and the odd
bit of something else (enslata mista; mixed salad), whereas at other times it may be
almost a full course in itself. It was on these principles that I have been
able to eat well in San Gimignano, Rome
and Venice.
Roma/Rome
Central Rome does not really go in for supermarkets, and
I had to buy picnic food from a variety of places. I bought fruit and
vegetables from the morning market at Campo dei Fiori. At night this is reputed to be a seedy area best
avoided by tourists: accordingly I frequented the place daily, but avoided it at
night. The fruit and vegetables were fine (courgettes on the flower were
a sight), most of them fresh, but not fantastically cheap. I ate fresh plum
tomatoes for the first time, and they were really rather tasty, little
resembling the canned plum tomatoes we have in the UK.
The plethora of water fountains made it easy to wash the food. There were
plenty of alimentari (although many close for
part of August) in which to buy olives and tapenade
(finely chopped olives marinated in olive oil, sometimes with other
'vegetables' such as aglio (garlic), cipolla (onion) and peperone
(capsicum pepper)). Some of the jars of tapenade
were wonderful. My favourite olives, which I have rarely encountered in the UK,
were those which were al forno (baked), sweet
and tasty. Fresh bread from the bakers was easy to buy once I realised that it
was sold by the etto (100 grammes)
and unsliced unless I asked for it to be sliced. I
found one health food shop (not far from Piazza Argentina),
and heard of another.
A speciality of Rome is a
colourless, sweet, aniseed flavour liqueur called sambucca,
made with extracts of elderberry (Sambucca nigra). On several occasions, I enjoyed sambucca on ice. It is traditionally served with five
coffee beans (termed moscas, to represent
flies: why?) and lit, to give it a burnt caramel edge. The flame burns an
almost invisible blue. The crunchy coffee beans are sharply bitter against the
sweetness of the liqueur.
I expected to become less overweight in Rome.
As a vegan vegetarian, I anticipated that there would be nowhere for me to eat
out, and we would be compelled to picnic the whole time. I was wrong. I failed
lose weight because there are several exclusively vegetarian restaurants in Rome.
I visited three vegetarian restaurants, and heard of two others:
|
 Supernatural
address (tel:); [other end of via del Corso, not far from Spanish Steps - Spagna
metro]
|
 vegetarian
pizzeria; inexpensive; eating from rickety tables in the street is fun, but
few tables inside, so beware of downpours; no English spoken, but some menus
in pigeon-English; limited vegan, but 'suggest your own' is possible; vegans
beware: I was served a non-vegan pizza despite explicit and clear requests,
however, the staff are friendly, and can cook a replacement vegan pizza very
fast; recommended
|
|
Margutta
Via Margutta 119, Rome
(tel: 678-6033) [off a street to the right between
Spanish Steps and Piazza del Populi]
|
vegetarian restaurant in up-market ambience. Limited
vegan; limited vegan awareness by staff; tables: ground floor; disabled
access reasonable, as I recall. Moderately priced, but no bargain. Reasonable
food, but not cordon bleu
|
|
Arancia Blu
Via dei Latini 65, Rome
(tel: 06-445-4105) [bus to Via Tiburtina,
or a walk from Termini through a less salubrious area]
|
vegetarian restaurant in the context of posh wine. Limited
vegan; limited vegan awareness by staff; tables: ground floor; disabled
access reasonable. Reasonably priced food, and good quality. This is an enoteca (specialist wine bar) that also serves
food: beware of the price of wine.
|
Venezia/Venice
There are several daily markets in Venice
from which to buy fruit and vegetables. The two markets I visited are at the
Campo di S. Margherita
(between San Polo and Dorsoduro), and at Campo Santa
Maria Formosa
(between San Marco and Castello). Not far from this
latter is a supermarket, which is very handy. Little alimentari
are less in evidence than in Rome,
I am not certain why.
There are ancient drinking water standpipes in Venice.
People drink from them. I drank from them, and didn't get ill. I would drink
from them again. They are also useful for washing fruit and vegetables.
The down-side to Venice is that
there are no vegetarian restaurants. The upside is that, as a result, at least
in the two non-vegetarian restaurants in which I have eaten, eating vegan
vegetarian is painless. Whilst I doubt that this is widely generalisable
across Venice, I should imagine
that some other eating places, particularly those frequented by the university
students (and staff?), will provide vegetarian food. In these two eating
places, the vino rosso
di casa is the same price as beer:
|
A'e Oche
Calle del Tintor (San
Polo, but beware, there are two in San Polo!) 1459; (no telephone listed);
[on south side of Campo S. Giacomo]
|
pizzeria; inexpensive; disabled access for eating in the street
(under awning), and some disabled access for eating inside, particularly at
no-smoking tables, but no disabled toilet facilities; some English spoken;
menu lists 94 (largely non-vegetarian) pizzas, but 'suggest your own' from a
base pizza is possible; vegans: pizza marinara, and pizza vegetariana "... ma senza
formaggio"; beware of the pasta - it is
made with chicken's eggs); can get very busy by mid-evening; recommended.
|
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All' Arco
address; (tel:) [somewhere between San Croce, San Polo and Dorsoduro, not too far from the Frari.]
|
Italian-looking
restaurant that seems to attract English-speaking people; good disabled
access, but I have no knowledge of toilets; limited vegetarian, and even more
limited (pizza vegetariana "... ma senza formaggio" and ensalata mista); moderately priced, but no bargain. Reasonable food, but
not cordon bleu.
|
p.g.h@btinternet.com