Help in vegan-trip to italy

hello,
my name is Tal and I'm from Israel. In the beginning of june I'll be traveling in northern Italy for almost two weeks. it will be a low-cost-trip, because we are students. the plan is to eat one meal a day in a resturant, and the others local-supermarket stuff.

so i want to know some things:

1. Which are the most-visit resturants in Milano and Venezia?
2. what are the everyday ingredients that I can find in the supermarket (and should try)?
for instant in Israel I would recomend to vegan to lock for: hummus, rettifica, olive-spread, tofu-cream-cheese, non dairy ice ream, and so on.
can some one make photos of the ingredients in their packages?
3. what words to look for on the stuff to know whether or not it is vegan?
for instance in Israel i am looking for the "Allergenic components" line.
4. whar are the most have sweet candy-ber / cookies i can buy in any gas station? photos?
5. what are the names of the big chain of organic / healthy food super markets?
6. what Products can i find in there? photos?

Any help will be gladly Accepted.

Hello Tal, welcome!
One question, first: do you speak Italian a bit? Ora, at least, can you read Italian? Because in shops the products' ingredients aren't always available in English.
Well, come to think of it, they often are, at least for the more widespread brands.

In our database you can find vegan friendly restaurant and shops, but the description is in Italian only:

https://www.veganhome.it/ristoranti-locali/

https://www.veganhome.it/negozi/

I can read italian, and I'm working on learning some basic words. keep in mind that I speak fluent english and some french, so even though I never learned italian before i can recognize many words.

Hi Tal! If you can look at what Marina suggested you, even by using a translator, that would surely be helpful. You can surely find something on happycow.com as well.

Bear in mind that the labelling system is not so good in Italy (although some products do carry the Vegan mark, but it's not compulsory as it is in the UK for instance), you won't find allergens highlighted.

Only some shop chains sell tofu/gluten products but some big ones do, for instance Coop, Esselunga, Carrefour, do sell some burgers and stuff, usually at good price and you can easily find them in Northern Italy. If you have a small budget go for fruit and veg, olives and nuts especially at the farmer markets, they are sold for a very small price.

You can also enjoy some excellent ice cream, most o the fruity flavours are usually vegan but make sure they tell you there is no milk in them ("senza latte"). Some bigger places also have ice cream made with soya milk.

The most common animal ingredients found in food are latte (milk), proteine del latte (milk protein) latte in polvere (milk powder), uova/albume (eggs), miele (honey) and obviously there are carne (meat), pesce (fish).

Ok, I'll try to answer some of your questions:

1. Which are the most-visit resturants in Milano and Venezia?

In Milano there are all these: https://www.veganhome.it/ristoranti-locali/cerca/?regione=&provincia=132&tipo=
I cannot recommend one, because I've not tried them, but you can choose among them the ones that are completely vegan.

In Venice I can recommend these two:

https://www.veganhome.it/ristoranti-locali/ristoranti/veneto/venezia/gam-gam/ https://www.veganhome.it/ristoranti-locali/ristoranti/veneto/venezia/frarys/
Moreover, every pizzeria will do: it's sufficient to ask a pizza without mozzarella and with vegetables of your choice as topping.

2. what are the everyday ingredients that I can find in the supermarket (and should try)?
for instant in Israel I would recomend to vegan to lock for: hummus, rettifica, olive-spread, tofu-cream-cheese, non dairy ice ream, and so on.

Well, in supermarkets you can find plenty of fresh vegetables and canned beans of various types, plus bread, focaccia, pizza, etc.
For bread you should pay attention to "strutto" (it's a fat taken from pigs) and milk (latte).
And pasta, rice, other grains.
You can also find many vegetable sauces for pasta.
If you read the English version of the ingredients you won't have any problem.
Many supermarkets have also tofu, seitan, various kinds of veg-burger.

3. what words to look for on the stuff to know whether or not it is vegan?

You must always read the whole ingredient list.
In some case you will find "100% vegetale" as indication, but it's not so common.
Pay attention that "vegetale" is not sufficient. You can find "vegetale" and still have eggs in the ingredients!

for instance in Israel i am looking for the "Allergenic components" line.

Here it is not so.

You should also NOT be bothered by the words "Può contenere tracce di: .." ("May contain traces of...") because the products (for example milk, egg, but usually you find here nuts, soy, etc) listed after these words are not real ingredients, it's only that in that facility they produce also products with those ingredients, so "traces" can be found because the machinery is not well washed or something like that. So even if on a product it is indicated that it may contain traces of milk or eggs, it's vegan all the same (if the real ingredients are all vegan), because they are not ingredients.
Don't be misleaded by that, otherwise you will exclude things that are actually vegan.

4. whar are the most have sweet candy-ber / cookies i can buy in any gas station? photos?

Well, I don't know, usually as cookies you find the Digestive, which are vegan.

5. what are the names of the big chain of organic / healthy food super markets?

The main ones are NaturaSì, Bio Bottega, Cuore Verde.
But there many others, it depends on the city.
Here you can find some addresses: https://www.veganhome.it/negozi/cerca/

6. what Products can i find in there? photos?

Well, you can find hundreds of products :-)
But you have to read the label even there, because many products are not vegan.

And Cuore Bio!
http://www.negozicuorebio.it/it/negozi/milano

But organic shops are usually pretty expensive, if you shop carefully you can find everything you need in supermarkets, which by the way sell many organic products as well. for a low price.

Ilaveg ha scritto:
And Cuore Bio! http://www.negozicuorebio.it/it/negozi/milano

Yes, syaing Cuore Verde I mean Cuore Bio, I wrote the wrong name :-)

But organic shops are usually pretty expensive, if you shop carefully you can find everything you need in supermarkets, which by the way sell many organic products as well. for a low price.

I agree!

Thanx alot everyone!

things are very different here from there.
here it is not that hard to read lables (because of the allergenic markers that are highlighted), but i heard that there are many substitutes that we dont have.
is it true that you have "tofurky"? and good soy ice-cream?

I'll be traveling with non vegan friends, and they will try many Italian food, and I want to have that experience too. so i must know what italia have to offer to vegans.

Not sure about tofurky but yes, ice cream is great, both the soya-based one and the one fruit flavoured.

If you go for a pizza (nice cheap option) you won't be disappointed if you get one no cheese with veggies. But I would try to convince your mates to try a vegan place once, maybe in Milan where there is more choice, as I'm sure they would like it too.

TalDiIsraele ha scritto:
Thanx alot everyone!

things are very different here from there.
here it is not that hard to read lables (because of the allergenic markers that are highlighted), but i heard that there are many substitutes that we dont have.

Well, in reality we don't need many substitutes, because traditional dishes are vegan or almost vegan (with small variations).

is it true that you have "tofurky"?

No, it's not true :-)

and good soy ice-cream?

Yes, soy and rice ice-creams.

I'll be traveling with non vegan friends, and they will try many Italian food, and I want to have that experience too. so i must know what italia have to offer to vegans.

Pizza and pasta with vegetable sauces, mainly :-)

Hi Tal,

welcome to Italy!
You've already received many helpful comments and suggestions!
When you eat out in restaurants, you might want to pay attention to pasta, which in Italy may be fresh (such as tagliatelle, maltagliati, and so forth) or dried (such as spaghetti, penne, etc..) - the latter is the kind you usually find abroad. In Northern Italy, most fresh pasta (especially served traditional restaurants) is made with eggs, so I suggest you ask for it.
Also, pay attention to risotto, which is often cooked with butter, meat-based stock and sometimes parmisan cheese - you need to ask about those, otherwise the dish will look.
I hope you enjoy your stay in Italy!

Lia