International travel, Rome, for someone with nut allergy

[crazyforlatin]

Dd will be going to Monte Cassino and Rome for one week. She has a nut allergy, carries an Epipen, has never traveled via plane. This will be her first time in Italy with her friend and his extended family. She will have a carryon luggage and a backpack, so stuffing too many protein bars may not be possible. We haven’t gone abroad due to not knowing how to navigate allergies and food. And we haven’t thought about study abroad due to the length of time and again the food part.
 

What should she consider in preparing for the trip? 
 

How have your kids navigated international traveling with nut allergies? 
 

 

[YaelAldrich]

Just now, crazyforlatin said:

Dd will be going to Monte Cassino and Rome for one week. She has a nut allergy, carries an Epipen, has never traveled via plane. This will be her first time in Italy with her friend and his extended family. She will have a carryon luggage and a backpack, so stuffing too many protein bars may not be possible. We haven’t gone abroad due to not knowing how to navigate allergies and food. And we haven’t thought about study abroad due to the length of time and again the food part.
 

What should she consider in preparing for the trip? 
 

How have your kids navigated international traveling with nut allergies? 
 

 

Can you please be more specific as to which nuts she is allergic to? Italy has a bunch of sweets with hazelnuts.

[crazyforlatin]

Just now, YaelAldrich said:

Can you please be more specific as to which nuts she is allergic to? Italy has a bunch of sweets with hazelnuts.

All nuts except almonds. She was doing the peanut experiment to adjust her system to it, but stopped recently. 
 

She knows that she won’t be able to eat many foods and is fine with it. She can’t speak Italian. But her friend’s grandparents can, but she and her friend might go out exploring on their own.

[YaelAldrich]

She really shouldn't eat any desserts, sweets, chocolates, or cookies without directly checking to see if they have nuts in them. She should memorize (and write down for easy reference) the names of the nuts she is allergic to.  Allergens are typically written on the packaging. She should teach her friend how to administer the EpiPen and what to do after as well. 

You can call the airline several days before traveling and ask if there will be nuts served on board. They can serve alternatives (but be aware that individuals can bring nuts on board).

Good luck and I hope she loves Italy!

[Spryte]

She needs to go to the FARE website and do some reading. 

Use the template to make a chef card in Italian with her allergens. Print a bazillion copies (I like to laminate them) because you will lose some. Give them to wait staff and restaurant managers and chefs.

Make sure she has a medic alert bracelet.

Have her learn how to call 911 there in advance, and how to ask for an ambulance.

Her friend needs to know how to administer an epipen and how to call for help.

Carry on “enough epipens for an elephant” is what our allergist says, and food for three days (protein bars, whatever). Our allergist recommends 6 epipens, back up inhalers, Benadryl, Pepcid, Zyrtec and whatever she normally uses. Yes, 6 epipens. Enough to keep administering if needed. None of this should be checked.

Mask on the plane. The entire time. That cuts down any chance of airborne reactions. Our kid with history of airborne reactions does this, but other kid and I do, too, because we’ve seen it happen to DS and we are cautious now.

Advise the airline in advance, talk to the people at the gate and tell them she needs to pre-board. Pre-board with the parents with babies and wipe down her seat, arm rests and tray. Tell the flight attendants and they may/may not establish a buffer zone of a few rows in which they ask people not to eat nuts. That one is hit or miss, and sometimes up to the pilot. Don’t eat on the plane unless it’s something she brought, obviously. 

All of this might sound like overkill, but it all helps. We fly and travel, and three of us have anaphylactic allergies — this is how we do it.

Before we knew about masking on the plane — DS did have an anaphylactic episode from airborne nuts on a plane. Did not fly for years after that and then Covid happened and the lightbulb went on. It works for us!

ETA: we don’t always trust restaurants, so we tend to grocery shop and eat easy prep food. Much less stressful for us that way, and we can research safe brands in advance. We have a lot of different allergies, so sometimes it gets confusing for wait staff to keep straight. Keeping safe snack food on hand, at least, might be a good back up plan for her, too. 

Research traveling in her target areas with nut allergies to find restaurant tips — someone will likely have experience and be able to recommend places.

Edited August 25 by Spryte

[Spryte]

Here’s the link to the chef cards: https://www.foodallergy.org/resources/food-allergy-chef-cards

 

[crazyforlatin]

2 hours ago, YaelAldrich said:

She really shouldn't eat any desserts, sweets, chocolates, or cookies without directly checking to see if they have nuts in them. She should memorize (and write down for easy reference) the names of the nuts she is allergic to.  Allergens are typically written on the packaging. She should teach her friend how to administer the EpiPen and what to do after as well. 

You can call the airline several days before traveling and ask if there will be nuts served on board. They can serve alternatives (but be aware that individuals can bring nuts on board).

Good luck and I hope she loves Italy!

Good ideas! She’s always wanted to learn Italian so she will be happy memorize the Italian names for all the nuts. Airborne doesn’t cause her to have an allergic reaction. I’ll let her know to skip all the sweets. She’s there to see sights not to enjoy their food. She’s a classics major (math as well) so I really want this to work out for her as a study abroad would be difficult.

[crazyforlatin]

1 hour ago, Spryte said:

She needs to go to the FARE website and do some reading. 

Use the template to make a chef card in Italian with her allergens. Print a bazillion copies (I like to laminate them) because you will lose some. Give them to wait staff and restaurant managers and chefs.

Make sure she has a medic alert bracelet.

Have her learn how to call 911 there in advance, and how to ask for an ambulance.

Her friend needs to know how to administer an epipen and how to call for help.

Carry on “enough epipens for an elephant” is what our allergist says, and food for three days (protein bars, whatever). Our allergist recommends 6 epipens, back up inhalers, Benadryl, Pepcid, Zyrtec and whatever she normally uses. Yes, 6 epipens. Enough to keep administering if needed. None of this should be checked.

Mask on the plane. The entire time. That cuts down any chance of airborne reactions. Our kid with history of airborne reactions does this, but other kid and I do, too, because we’ve seen it happen to DS and we are cautious now.

Advise the airline in advance, talk to the people at the gate and tell them she needs to pre-board. Pre-board with the parents with babies and wipe down her seat, arm rests and tray. Tell the flight attendants and they may/may not establish a buffer zone of a few rows in which they ask people not to eat nuts. That one is hit or miss, and sometimes up to the pilot. Don’t eat on the plane unless it’s something she brought, obviously. 

All of this might sound like overkill, but it all helps. We fly and travel, and three of us have anaphylactic allergies — this is how we do it.

Before we knew about masking on the plane — DS did have an anaphylactic episode from airborne nuts on a plane. Did not fly for years after that and then Covid happened and the lightbulb went on. It works for us!

ETA: we don’t always trust restaurants, so we tend to grocery shop and eat easy prep food. Much less stressful for us that way, and we can research safe brands in advance. We have a lot of different allergies, so sometimes it gets confusing for wait staff to keep straight. Keeping safe snack food on hand, at least, might be a good back up plan for her, too. 

Research traveling in her target areas with nut allergies to find restaurant tips — someone will likely have experience and be able to recommend places.

Thank you! This a lot to digest. I was thinking 4 epipens but more is wise. 
 

For snacks, do airlines allow us to bring protein bars in the back pack and carry on? And I don’t think they will be preparing food at a hotel given the short stay and the number of people going together. But the cards will be useful. 
 

Should the medic alert bracelet be in Italian? English? Both? 

[crazyforlatin]

@Spryte the FARE is fantastic, even has a timeline for us to prepare months ahead, thanks!

[Frances]

1 hour ago, crazyforlatin said:

Thank you! This a lot to digest. I was thinking 4 epipens but more is wise. 
 

For snacks, do airlines allow us to bring protein bars in the back pack and carry on? And I don’t think they will be preparing food at a hotel given the short stay and the number of people going together. But the cards will be useful. 
 

Should the medic alert bracelet be in Italian? English? Both? 

Yes, she can definitely pack food like protein bars in both her carryon and backpack. I don’t have any allergies and always pack lots of protein bars. I’m glad to hear she’s not bothered by airborne allergens, as I think people eating protein bars during flights is pretty common and many of them contain nuts.

I’m not sure if it’s the same in Italy, but I will say that on our recent east coast trip, we were proactively asked about allergies at the vast majority of places we ate. It’s not super common where we live on the west coast, but seemed to be the norm there, at least in the big cities.

[MEmama]

I've been on flights that announce there is a passenger aboard with a nut allergy and to please abstain. She should definitely let the airline know ahead of time, upon boarding and even again while getting seated.

Does she have Google translate on her phone? The app is simple to use--just hold up your phone to literally anything with writing--ingredients, menu, historic signage, graffiti--and it translates on the spot. Or she can take a photo for later, but we use it a lot in real time. 
 

DH is allergic to coconut which is in just about everything these days. We find translate incredibly useful for ingredient lists. She can write in "I'm allergic to all nuts. Do you have anything without them" or similar and it will translate her question, so she can hold up her phone to the bakery person or whatever. Much easier and safer than fumbling around with a new language (and Italy is famously not English friendly unlike most of Europe).

 

 

Edited August 25 by MEmama

[scholastica]

5 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

Good ideas! She’s always wanted to learn Italian so she will be happy memorize the Italian names for all the nuts. Airborne doesn’t cause her to have an allergic reaction. I’ll let her know to skip all the sweets. She’s there to see sights not to enjoy their food. She’s a classics major (math as well) so I really want this to work out for her as a study abroad would be difficult.

Be careful with the idea that airborne doesn’t cause a reaction. My ds just had his first airborne reaction at 26. It was a case of “the dose makes the poison” - a high concentration of peanuts in a small space. He was fine and didn’t need epi once he got out of there and took Benadryl, but it scared both of us.

[Spryte]

6 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

Thank you! This a lot to digest. I was thinking 4 epipens but more is wise. 
 

For snacks, do airlines allow us to bring protein bars in the back pack and carry on? And I don’t think they will be preparing food at a hotel given the short stay and the number of people going together. But the cards will be useful. 
 

Should the medic alert bracelet be in Italian? English? Both? 

I’ve never considered multiple medic alert bracelets, but sometimes they have good sales, and it wouldn’t hurt. Lauren’s Hope always has a good sale.

You can carry on protein bars, no problem.

She can also speak to her allergist about this. They will have tips specific for her.

Edited August 25 by Spryte

[prairiewindmomma]

We were in Rome several months ago with our allergies. Everything we purchased in grocery stores was well labeled. Restaurants were a bit iffy at times. I would recommend looking at menus beforehand and using translation tools and picking nut free restaurants altogether. I think cross contamination is going to be a possibility in smaller places. I would especially avoid gelato places. We saw a lot of scoops crosscontaminating all of the cases. 
 

Pistachio, hazelnut, and almond were the three nuts we saw the most in Rome.

[crazyforlatin]

I was thinking packing canned sardines in a check in luggage which we were hoping to avoid.

I’m not sure how food vacuum bags work - could we remove the sardines and put them in those bags in the carryon? Airlines won’t allow canned foods with liquid. If the sardines were in vacuum sealed bags, does that mean it’s still safe to eat it if left in the carryon? 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

Sardines are super easy to buy in Italy. Seriously. 
 

Eta: we shopped at Pewex most of the time in Rome, just because of where we were staying, but there were Carrefour Express everywhere. Pop into google maps and you’ll see what I mean.

Edited August 25 by prairiewindmomma

[prairiewindmomma]

200Gradi is a panini restaurant (they have salads too) near the Vatican that should be safe. The sandwiches were hot and delicious and the staff and kitchen were all fluent in English and they had English language menus….but most of the patrons were Italian. Super delicious!!

[MEmama]

1 hour ago, crazyforlatin said:

I was thinking packing canned sardines in a check in luggage which we were hoping to avoid.

I’m not sure how food vacuum bags work - could we remove the sardines and put them in those bags in the carryon? Airlines won’t allow canned foods with liquid. If the sardines were in vacuum sealed bags, does that mean it’s still safe to eat it if left in the carryon? 

 

Just buy them there. Cheap and easily available. 
 

We typically make our own foods from the grocery when we travel. They have at least as many or more healthy convenience foods as good shops here, it's cheap by our standards and ingredients are easy to control. We eat picnics everywhere, as do locals.

[YaelAldrich]

Eating from grocery stores will be better; just not as touristy. But I really recommend staying away from chocolates, candies, and cookies. Nuts are ubiquitous in those. Gelato as mentioned would also be bad unless you found a place without any nuts in it.

[YaelAldrich]

Found this 

https://www.spokin.com/italy-nut-allergy-friendly-gluten-free-travel-itinerary

[YaelAldrich]

And this

https://foodallergygetaways.com/blog/how-to-eat-nut-free-in-italy/

[Ottakee]

I would also watch coffees as so many have nuts

[prairiewindmomma]

Salad dressings too. A lot of them had walnut oil or other things in them…same with finishing sauces for fish, etc. 

You can be totally safe and have awesome experiences traveling—dont want to scare you off—but it does take a bit of diligence as you are encountering so many different foods and most people know their “safe” food routines at home.

Fwiw, I said this a lot, “Mi scusi, ho un’allergia alle noce”…. (Excuse me, I have a nut allergy…) You could also say,  “Sono allergico a tutti i tipi di noce.” (I am allergic to all types of nuts.) 

Edited August 25 by prairiewindmomma

[Ottakee]

I support the idea of at least some meals from the grocery store.   When I was in Italy we found lots of great meats and cheeses and olives and fruits/veggies and crackers to make our own lunches.  We got to enjoy lots of local favorites this way….and it was quite inexpensive.

[crazyforlatin]

Dd will need to go out to dinner with their family every night, but given that she really wants to avoid a scene, she would rather go hungry than to eat a contaminated food. 
 

So I like really like the idea of buying canned foods at the local grocery shop rather than bringing canned sardines in a suitcase. 
 

We don’t know what hotels they are staying, so I don’t know how she will prepare food for herself if there is no small fridge. 

 

 

[madteaparty]

12 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

I was thinking packing canned sardines in a check in luggage which we were hoping to avoid.

I’m not sure how food vacuum bags work - could we remove the sardines and put them in those bags in the carryon? Airlines won’t allow canned foods with liquid. If the sardines were in vacuum sealed bags, does that mean it’s still safe to eat it if left in the carryon? 

 

Plenty of canned sardines and tuna etc in Italy and better quality than in the states. You won’t have to do a massive grocery store trip (if you were concerned about inconveniencing the family)as there are small groceries in every neighborhood and they will pass them just sightseeing. At least in Rome they will. 

[madteaparty]

8 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Salad dressings too. A lot of them had walnut oil or other things in them…same with finishing sauces for fish, etc. 

You can be totally safe and have awesome experiences traveling—dont want to scare you off—but it does take a bit of diligence as you are encountering so many different foods and most people know their “safe” food routines at home.

Fwiw, I said this a lot, “Mi scusi, ho un’allergia alle noce”…. (Excuse me, I have a nut allergy…) You could also say,  “Sono allergico a tutti i tipi di noce.” (I am allergic to all types of nuts.) 

Sono allergicA (since it’s feminine) 😉 

[Spryte]

When we travel, even with three of us with multiple LTFAs, we don’t spend a lot of time on grocery shopping or food prep. We pop into shops daily, small visits. This is when we eat easy foods. Cheese with safe crackers, fruit, sunbutter, I can’t think of everything at the moment, but mostly things that don’t require a kitchen, that we carry in and out of hotel rooms in a shopping bag, sometimes with a small cooler if we can grab one. It does take some work with a translate app in the grocery store while we find safe items, at first. 

Does she eat Sunbutter? They sell a pack of individual serving, airline ok, packets. “Sunbutter On The Go,” I think it’s called. We travel with a lot of those! They should be at the Sunbutter website, or on Amazon. If she doesn’t need Sunbutter (I can’t removed if she’s peanut allergic), I’m sure peanut butter companies do the same.

With our kid with many anaphylactic allergies we have found that vacations are the times when we need to tighten the safe/comfort zone. We have tried loosening up, and landed in ERs in various cities, even when we did All The Things in restaurants. (I’m looking at you, manager of the vegan shop who showed us packaging and ingredients and promised you’d use clean utensils and pans, and make it personally!) 

I hope she has a wonderful time!

Edited August 26 by Spryte

[mindinggaps]

@crazyforlatin Request for information - how severe is the allergy and how old is your child?

Edited August 26 by mindinggaps
brevity

[wintermom]

14 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

Dd will need to go out to dinner with their family every night, but given that she really wants to avoid a scene, she would rather go hungry than to eat a contaminated food. 

Well, she could just tell the family that the options are likely 1) she eat contaminated food at a restaurant and they all visit the hospital for potentially 4+ hours to multiple days, or 2) the family help your dd find safe ways to eat (aka grocery store). I know people who have unusual allergies, such as tomato, and even when telling restaurant staff "no tomato of any kind," they ended up in the hospital for several days because there was tomato in some seasoning flakes. 

Edited August 26 by wintermom

[crazyforlatin]

3 hours ago, mindinggaps said:

@crazyforlatin Request for information - how severe is the allergy and how old is your child?

She’s just turned 19 and her allergies are severe enough to need an epipen though with previous experience she didn’t need to use it, sometimes drinking a lot of water makes the symptoms go away. 

[crazyforlatin]

2 hours ago, wintermom said:

Well, she could just tell the family that the options are likely 1) she eat contaminated food at a restaurant and they all visit the hospital for potentially 4+ hours to multiple days, or 2) the family help your dd find safe ways to eat (aka grocery store). I know people who have unusual allergies, such as tomato, and even when telling restaurant staff "no tomato of any kind," they ended up in the hospital for several days because there was tomato in some seasoning flakes. 

That’s the one thing she wants to avoid is to trouble everyone. So I know she would make the effort to look for a grocery store to get safe foods. I looked up Carrefour and there seems to be enough around in the city.

[crazyforlatin]

3 hours ago, Spryte said:

When we travel, even with three of us with multiple LTFAs, we don’t spend a lot of time on grocery shopping or food prep. We pop into shops daily, small visits. This is when we eat easy foods. Cheese with safe crackers, fruit, sunbutter, I can’t think of everything at the moment, but mostly things that don’t require a kitchen, that we carry in and out of hotel rooms in a shopping bag, sometimes with a small cooler if we can grab one. It does take some work with a translate app in the grocery store while we find safe items, at first. 

Does she eat Sunbutter? They sell a pack of individual serving, airline ok, packets. “Sunbutter On The Go,” I think it’s called. We travel with a lot of those! They should be at the Sunbutter website, or on Amazon. If she doesn’t need Sunbutter (I can’t removed if she’s peanut allergic), I’m sure peanut butter companies do the same.

With our kid with many anaphylactic allergies we have found that vacations are the times when we need to tighten the safe/comfort zone. We have tried loosening up, and landed in ERs in various cities, even when we did All The Things in restaurants. (I’m looking at you, manager of the vegan shop who showed us packaging and ingredients and promised you’d use clean utensils and pans, and make it personally!) 

I hope she has a wonderful time!

That’s a great idea, I’ve seen almond butter in packets. She’s allergic to all nuts except almond, but has been doing the peanut challenge for a while. 

[crazyforlatin]

10 hours ago, madteaparty said:

Sono allergicA (since it’s feminine) 😉 

You’ve been hiding your Italian knowledge all this time?

[crazyforlatin]

19 hours ago, Ottakee said:

I would also watch coffees as so many have nuts

Yeah I had to stop her when she said she can now drink black coffee and can do that in Rome. I mentioned your comment and she can’t understand why they put nuts in coffee. She took a college class recently and had weekly tasting of coffee.

[mindinggaps]

@crazyforlatin At 19 years old I think you have to trust your child to manage this themselves. This likely feels terrifying, but this is an incredibly important learning experience and something from which she can gain a lot of confidence. I have almost the same allergy and while I certainly don't want to directly map my experiences onto her since severity and risks are different for everyone, I do have some very deep experience on this topic. I have traveled extensively, including Italy and have also lived abroad. With some caution and common sense, your daughter can probably do what she wants in Rome - eat at restaurants, drink coffee, try new foods, have a good time. Nuts are also not super common in most Italian food and with a little background information you can manage a lot of risk just be avoiding certain things. Personally, I think it's important for her to have this trip and do it on her terms. She's an adult and needs to learn to live with this allergy. It will be as limiting as you let it. I'm not saying don't be careful and cautious, but what I am saying is don't let fear of nuts overwhelm her trip and ability to explore. Here is some advice:

• Learn the Italian words for nuts (obviously)
• Traveling in Europe is fairly straightforward since there is a law which mandates that restaurant menus must highlight common allergens. Most restaurants are going to have an English menu and at a glance you can see what things pose danger. For example, here is the menu for a very famous restaurant in Rome and you can clearly see the allergens are labelled. In my experience, Italy isn't the best at adhering to this law and some smaller establishments will simply ignore this. Just avoid places that don't label allergens on the menu.
• It sounds like she is also going to be with people who speak Italian. This is a huge help, they can communicate with others which will be very helpful. Although, almost everyone in the service industry in Italy will speak English.

55 minutes ago, crazyforlatin said:

Yeah I had to stop her when she said she can now drink black coffee and can do that in Rome. I mentioned your comment and she can’t understand why they put nuts in coffee. She took a college class recently and had weekly tasting of coffee.

• Tell her to drink coffee, please. The risk from drinking coffee in Italy is pretty close to zero. Just order an Americano or Espresso. Basic coffee in Italy is not going to have nuts in it. She's into coffee, encourage her to enjoy it. Coffee is one of the great joys of Italy.
• Overall, avoiding nuts in Italy is not tremendously difficult. For example, carbonara, cacio e pepe and amatriciana which are the most common pasta dishes in Rome are nut free. Most pastas and pizza also carry very, very low-risk.
• Here are things she actually should avoid:
  • Desserts (just avoid it entirely since this is where most nuts will be)
  • Pesto (will usually be made with pine nuts, but often with other nuts as well)
  • Gelato/ice cream
  • Mortadella - common meat with pistachios which is used in a lot of sandwiches and as a topping for pizzas and other food from time to time
  • Pastries

If she's careful with the above, the vast majority of food in Italy doesn't pose massive risks. If she was going to India or Thailand, it's a bit of a different story, but this is a great opportunity for her to learn how to travel with her allergy. Trust her ability to figure this out and let her enjoy it. Trust yourself that you've helped her manage this growing up. She sounds like a practical, competent young adult.

Allergies suck but she will figure this out. I'm also not trying to discount or undermine any of the comments here. However, I have actually personally lived with this for my entire life and I think some of the suggestions are a bit overly cautious. Again, yes there are risks, but they should be quite manageable. 

Edited August 26 by mindinggaps
grammar

[crazyforlatin]

3 hours ago, mindinggaps said:

@crazyforlatin At 19 years old I think you have to trust your child to manage this themselves. This likely feels terrifying, but this is an incredibly important learning experience and something from which she can gain a lot of confidence. I have almost the same allergy and while I certainly don't want to directly map my experiences onto her since severity and risks are different for everyone, I do have some very deep experience on this topic. I have traveled extensively, including Italy and have also lived abroad. With some caution and common sense, your daughter can probably do what she wants in Rome - eat at restaurants, drink coffee, try new foods, have a good time. Nuts are also not super common in most Italian food and with a little background information you can manage a lot of risk just be avoiding certain things. Personally, I think it's important for her to have this trip and do it on her terms. She's an adult and needs to learn to live with this allergy. It will be as limiting as you let it. I'm not saying don't be careful and cautious, but what I am saying is don't let fear of nuts overwhelm her trip and ability to explore. Here is some advice:

• Learn the Italian words for nuts (obviously)
• Traveling in Europe is fairly straightforward since there is a law which mandates that restaurant menus must highlight common allergens. Most restaurants are going to have an English menu and at a glance you can see what things pose danger. For example, here is the menu for a very famous restaurant in Rome and you can clearly see the allergens are labelled. In my experience, Italy isn't the best at adhering to this law and some smaller establishments will simply ignore this. Just avoid places that don't label allergens on the menu.
• It sounds like she is also going to be with people who speak Italian. This is a huge help, they can communicate with others which will be very helpful. Although, almost everyone in the service industry in Italy will speak English.

• Tell her to drink coffee, please. The risk from drinking coffee in Italy is pretty close to zero. Just order an Americano or Espresso. Basic coffee in Italy is not going to have nuts in it. She's into coffee, encourage her to enjoy it. Coffee is one of the great joys of Italy.
• Overall, avoiding nuts in Italy is not tremendously difficult. For example, carbonara, cacio e pepe and amatriciana which are the most common pasta dishes in Rome are nut free. Most pastas and pizza also carry very, very low-risk.
• Here are things she actually should avoid:
  • Desserts (just avoid it entirely since this is where most nuts will be)
  • Pesto (will usually be made with pine nuts, but often with other nuts as well)
  • Gelato/ice cream
  • Mortadella - common meat with pistachios which is used in a lot of sandwiches and as a topping for pizzas and other food from time to time
  • Pastries

If she's careful with the above, the vast majority of food in Italy doesn't pose massive risks. If she was going to India or Thailand, it's a bit of a different story, but this is a great opportunity for her to learn how to travel with her allergy. Trust her ability to figure this out and let her enjoy it. Trust yourself that you've helped her manage this growing up. She sounds like a practical, competent young adult.

Allergies suck but she will figure this out. I'm also not trying to discount or undermine any of the comments here. However, I have actually personally lived with this for my entire life and I think some of the suggestions are a bit overly cautious. Again, yes there are risks, but they should be quite manageable. 

Thank you for sharing your own experiences, it really helps to know that you have been through this and traveled successfully. And the names of the dishes you mentioned will be super helpful. I want her to travel and enjoy it and this opportunity seems like the best time, a short trip with her friend and his family who originally came from Monte Cassino.

[Ottakee]

6 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

Yeah I had to stop her when she said she can now drink black coffee and can do that in Rome. I mentioned your comment and she can’t understand why they put nuts in coffee. She took a college class recently and had weekly tasting of coffee.

There might be some that are safe but I would have her ask.  One bar we went to lined the cups with Nutella and poured the coffee in there.  Just cross contamination might be an issue.   

[madteaparty]

7 hours ago, crazyforlatin said:

You’ve been hiding your Italian knowledge all this time?

lol. Not hiding. It just never comes up 😉 

[YaelAldrich]

Once I saw the comment to eat luncheon meat I wanted to say but not mortadela! And have her ask about every deli meat. There are others with nuts and there could be cross contamination on the cutter.

[*LC]

You have received a lot of great practical advice.

I just wanted to let you know study abroad is possible for your daughter if she wants to do that later in college. My nut-allergic young adult studied abroad during college without any issues. The program typically had study-abroad students live with families, but my kid chose to live in student apartments to have control over food. 

My YA, who has continued to travel internationally, has now visited 6 continents and more countries than i can remember.

I hope your daughter has a fantastic time in Italy.