Vegan Rome

[gertvegan]

"Vegan Rome" is HERE. (http://homepage.eircom.net/~thewub/vegan/rome.html)

[DianeVegan]

Gert,
Thanks for this link. It certainly came in handy during my recent visit to Rome. We were there for 3 nights and ate at Il Margutta Ristorante (http://www.ilmargutta.it) 2 nights. They are vegetarian but have a few vegan options. Who would have thought I'd have seitan in Rome? They even had a 4 course vegan meal for 36 euros (a fabulous bargain considering the high quality of the food).

We had no trouble finding vegetable pizza with out cheese in Rome (unlike Venice). And there were quite a few places with soy gelato. I can't figure out what sweetener Gelateria Blu Ice uses for it's soy gelato (also listed as sugar-free) but it has a slight aftertaste and gave both of us gas after eating it - therefor I think it's definitely an artificial sweetener. However, Blu Ice had the most intensely flavored soy gelato. I can't comment on the other restaurants listed since we didn't try them.

[aubergine]

Ooh... I want to go to Rome.

I want to go even more now. Thanks for the link.

[Troutina]

I'm going to Rome on Monday!
Excitement!!

[DianeVegan]

OOhh, you must tell us how it was when you return!!

[fiamma]

I'm going to Rome on Monday!
Excitement!!

Hi Troutina!
Are you going to the big outdoor concert? Have fun anyway, whatever you do!

[gogs67]

Went to Sicily last year and have to say the vegan pizzas were out of this world.MMMmmmmmmm.................................

[Kevster]

'Italy restaurant fined for "cruel" lobster display
Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:55am ET

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian restaurant was fined 688 euros ($855) for displaying live lobsters on ice to attract patrons, in an innovative application of an anti-cruelty law usually affecting to household pets.

A court in the northeastern city of Vicenza ruled the display was a form of abuse dooming the crustaceans to a slow death by suffocation.

"We're appealing," said Giuseppe Scalesia, who runs La Conchiglia D'Oro, or "Golden Shell," restaurant along with his brother Camillo.

"They said that the lobsters, laying on the ice, suffer... They compared them in court to other animals, like cats and dogs."

The case was brought by Gianpaolo Cecchetto, a former environmental activist, who took his two young children to the Vicenza restaurant in May 2002.

"They were shocked by the display," Cecchetto told Reuters, adding he immediately got in touch with the ENPA national animal protection entity. "ENPA took care of the lawyers and legal proceedings."

Italy has some of the world's toughest animal rights laws. The city of Rome in October banned goldfish bowls, seen as cruel, while Turin passed a law last year that would fine dog owners 500 euros unless they walked their canine friends at least three times a day.'

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2006-04-28T125502Z_01_L27553812_RTRUKOC_0_US-LOBSTER.xml

[Troutina]

Hi Troutina!
Are you going to the big outdoor concert? Have fun anyway, whatever you do!

Hi!
What outdoor concert!!
Im not going for this concert, but if its any good we might drop by!

Me and my boyfriend have been hunting all over the web for restuarants and phrases.
And I'll definetly report back with how the food stuff went!

If anyone has any tips please share!!

[fiamma]

Hi Troutina,
this concert is huge! It's a tradition and takes place every year. Normally it goes out live but didn't last year 'cos they were scared the artists would make politically uncomfortable statements about the war in Iraq *LoL* but that was a real affront to free speech. Anyway, back to the concert... I'm pretty sure it's free, and in the open air!!! May 1 is a holiday here - Yay!!! - so some places may be closed, but I think museums etc. tend to stay open on holidays. But the weather should be good so have a great time swanning around those piazzas guzzling all that soya ice-cream and vegan pizzas they do so well here!!! :cool:

Click here (http://www.girodivite.it/Concerto-del-Primo-Maggio-2006-i.html)for an article - it's in Italian but there are a couple of pics to give you an idea of the size of the concert. Seems James Blunt will be there, as well as Juliette Lewis and Nick Cave...

"Labor Day Concert: Live (http://zoomata.com/?p=911)
(http://zoomata.com/?p=911)Follow the traditional May Day concert in Rome’s Piazza San Giovanni — live from 4 p.m. Italian time. This year’s politically charged version — between peace banners & protests over the labor reform law Article 18 includes guests like Nick Cave, Cabin, popsters Alex Britti, Enrico Ruggeri, Irene Grandi & staff favorites like Carmen Consoli, Vinicio Capossela and Franceso De Gregori."

[Troutina]

WOW!!

That sounds AMAZING!

And I love Juliette and the Licks!

Might have to persuade the boy to let us go to this...!
So you think it's going to be ok eating in Rome?
I'm a little worried, because otherwise I would be fine with snacking randomly, but this is a kind of birthday/ anniversary romantic holiday!
And I'm determined to find the vegan ice cream place!!
My boyfriend doesn't believe it exists!
I think the phrase "Too good to be true" comes to mind!!

[fiamma]

So you think it's going to be ok eating in Rome?

I think you'll be fine!!! Arm yourself with a few phrases and remember that pizza options are not limited to the combinations on the menu, they'll make any combination you want. I ordered a vegetarian pizza with potato instead of mozzarella the other day and that was a very good combination. Pizza without cheese has been one of the hardest things for me as a vegan! But "Pizza Marinara" for example, despite the name, is just tomato, garlic and oregano.



And I'm determined to find the vegan ice cream place!!
My boyfriend doesn't believe it exists!

Don't forget too that many places will have soya ice-cream, although it might not be immediately obvious. Ask for "gelato di soia". The gelateria downstairs from us (and we live in a pretty small town) has three different flavours of soya ice-cream, if not four or five. Not that I'm bragging of course :cool: :D So I'm sure lots of places will have it in Rome, you might need to be a bit persistent.

Any more info you need just ask! Oh I wish I was going to Rome too now !!! *sulks* :D

[Jane M]

Food Fight has a book called Vegan Passport with handy phrases

http://store.foodfightgrocery.com/veganpassport.html

might come in handy?

[DianeVegan]

I have that booklet but it was unfortunately shipped too late for me to use during my most recent trip in Europe (although The Vegan Society did fax me the appropriate pages at my first hotel).

The information is fairly basic - if someone wants to know what the booklet covers then pm me and I will be glad to share. Otherwise, I would only get the booklet if I were traveling to more than one area where I didn't speak the language.

[Troutina]

Rome was really fun!
There are photos in my blogs here: www.myspace.com/troutina (http://www.myspace.com/troutina)

Here's some helpful italian words/ phrases:

Non mangio carne, ne pollo o pesce: I don't eat meat, chicken or fish.
Sono vegano/ vegana: I am vegan- male/ female.
Non bevo il latte: I don't drink milk.
Non mangio il burro, il formaggio, le uova, o il miele: I don't eat butter, cheese, eggs or honey.
C'e' del brodo di carne o pollo in questa zuppa?: Is there meat or chicken broth in this soup?
Io amo gli animali, percio' non li mangio: I love animals, so I don't eat them.

I recommend you print these out. When I was trying to explain to restaurants it was easier to point at the bit of paper!

At the airport, it was good old beans on toast with my own vegan butter.

On the first day we went to the most famous (and £££!!) vegetarian restaurant in Rome: it's called Margutta. Get off at Spagna station, it's a couple of stops from Termini (the central station) and it's where the Spanish Steps are. If you stand with the steps behind you, turn right down the nearest road and then the next right- there were loads of peopel selling artwork down this road. Then its left and a couple minutes walk down this road. There's two Marguttas' down this road, so careful! It's the second one. It has a vegan set menu for 36 euros for 4 courses. Very very tasty. First course was a slice of raw tofu with a gorgeous tomato sauce and beans. I have no idea why this tasted nice (RAW TOFU...) (BEANS...) but it was delicious! Second course was rice with cabbage. Random but yum. Third course was awesome chicken strips, so so good!! And fourth was a big fruit salad with a couple of scoops of sorbet, but it was so thick it was more like ice cream! Without wine, just 4 glasses of orange juice, it came to 87 euros, which is like £68, something like that! Very pricey, but there was art on the walls and a piano playing, so it was really nice!

I brought my own butter and kept it in the mini bar. I would suggest bringing milk as well. I found one shop on the second day which sold one brand of soya and one brand of rice, but this was the only place I saw that sold it.

Most pizza places offer pizza without cheese, or will make it for you, but I can't be 100% certain the bases are vegan.

By the Trevy Fountain there is Blue Ice (another one is situated on the bottom road to the left of the Spanish Steps) and they offer 6 flavours of Soy Ice Cream! Amazing!

I don't know if there's anything else I can say really!

[dreamqueen]

Hello,

I have been in Rome since Saturday and things aren't going well food-wise. I have had very bad luck trying to find the veg-friendly restos listed on happycow - so far i have found only one and they wouldn't give me a menu, only tea. i haven't been able to find food, besides produce, in grocery stores that i can eat. at my bed and breakfast they are only giving me fruit. i have tried three different regular restos with english-speaking waiters who assured me certain dishes were safe for me but i got sick every time - i seem unable to digest what i can only assume is animal-contaminatd food so i am becoming very faint and shaky and tired from prolonged hunger. can anyone tell me where (with very precise directions, as i was so dizzy with hunger last night i lost my sense of direction, which never happens) i can find a health food shop or something selling vegan breads, soy products, etc in rome? i will be eternally grateful.

dreamwueen

[harpy]

That's a shame, dreamqueen. Unfortunately veg. restaurants seem to go out of business at a rate of knots in some towns so perhaps that's happened to the ones on Happycow. I haven't been to Rome for a few years and only recognised one of the names on their list, the via Margutta one, which was nice IIRC.

There used to be a health food shop in the Campo dei Fiori but I can't see any references to it now. There are a couple mentioned on the following site though - maybe you could phone them or get the people in your pension to phone them for you to check they're still open and get directions, to save you a wild goose chase.

http://www.inromenow.com/site%20templates/ShopGourmet.html

More-or-less vegan things that I have eaten successfully in ordinary restaurants in Rome include pizzas without cheese ("senza formaggio") and the vegetable antipasto buffets that they have in some restaurants. You may see takeway pizza counters which do sometimes have cheese-free pizzas if I remember correctly. I believe the Ghetto area is meant to be a good bet for veggie-friendly restaurants, but I'm not sure if I've ever actually eaten there.

I also tend to buy fruit and veg as you've been doing, and also bread, nuts and chocolate to fill in any holes.

All the best

[piggy]

yes, ask for pizza without mozzarella, or pizza with "solo pomodoro" ie only tomato.
avoid pasta dishes in restaurants, because although the sauce is usually vegan, the fresh pasta used in restaurants has almost always got eggs. u could try asking for "pasta senza uovo" eggless pasta.
so i think pizza is your best bet in restaurants.
otherwise as harpy says try and find a restaurant that does lots of vegetable antipasti "antipasti di verdure", that with bread makes a nice meal. the bread in rome and down south should all be vegan. don't know about up north.
as for buying groceries...try a big supermarket, the small grocery shops u'd find at the city centre wouldn't stock soy milk n stuff like that. to get to a supermarket you'd have to go to the outskirts of the city though i think, just ask. i think it'd just be easier to find than a healthfood shop

i'm afraid i can't direct you to any place in particular, i don't know rome very well at all.

[piggy]

PS: if you plan on coming down Naples way, pm me, i could try and help you out there :) also, the southern regions are far more vegan friendly, with a lot of veggie dishes and the pizza is far tastier :D

[harpy]

Oh yes, sorry - I always forget that mozzarella doesn't count as formaggio - they normally understand though!

[piggy]

hey again, i did a little research on a splendid italian vegan site (www.veganhome.it), and i think these links might help you. i just hope they're not too late for you :(

This one lists different types of vegan friendly shops in Rome, if you click on "Dettagli" to the right of each listing it gives you address, possibly phone num and other info about the place. If you need any help navigating that, just pm me :) Maybe if you tell me the area you're living in i could point out the ones that are close: http://www.veganhome.it/acquisti/negozi.php?p=184&r=&m=&submit=Cerca

The nice thing about this site is, it tells you in "Dettagli" when the place was listed, so you can try and pick the up-to-date ones that haven't gone out of business yet :D

This link lists restaurants, pubs, and B&Bs:
http://www.veganhome.it/acquisti/locali.php?p=184&r=&t=&submit=Cerca

The first B&B i cam across on there is this one, and it seems great...totally vegan:
www.alexanderbb.it
And the listing is from May 2007, so it's likely to be up to date :)

[dreamqueen]

Thanks, everyone. I found some antipastis and vegan crackers in a supermercado yesterday and that's been helping, but I'm still desperate for meal. I'll definitely try the pizza, since it's everywhere. If I could safely eat pizza every day I think my problems would be solved. I'm going to try that after I leave here. I'm probably leaving Rome on Tuesday, hopefully to go to Florence. I need to go somewhere more laid back! Rome is just too big and busy for me, especially because I decided to take a trip to get rid of some stress and relax!

Piggy: thanks for the offer of help in Naples - if the Florence thing doesn't work out, I may take you up on it.I'm pretty much free to go where I want as long as I am in Milan on Nov. 29 to meet my hubby.

[piggy]

wow...29 novembre.....that's a long holiday! great!
check out veganhome.it for vegan B&Bs or agriturisms near florence too...any thing that i can help with, contact me :) hope you find a good place to have supper!

[fiamma]

Hi dreamqueen,
I'm in Bologna, and happy to help out if need be...

Enjoy your hols!

[insubordination]

I went to Rome earlier this year but didn't have much time to research. I ended up walking around eating pistachios most of the time and stuck to antipasto.