We spent two full days in Genoa in May 2024. I did a lot of research into where I could safely eat gluten free while travelling to Italy. Consistently, bloggers and websites said it would be easy and safe to eat gluten free in Italy – and it was! Restaurants get certified by the AIC (Italian Celiac Association), which basically means they have passed certification and training as a safe place for people with celiac disease to eat. They do have a paid app you can download, but we weren’t in Italy for long, so I didn’t try it. Note: Be cautious when visiting gelato shops if you are celiac, as cross-contamination is likely.
Of course, do your research, ask questions ahead of ordering, and reach out to restaurants ahead of time when needed.
There are more options (including entirely gluten-free options), which I have included in a map at the end of this post. We have many more gluten free Italy guides, too.
Gluten Free Genoa
Bakery 1970 Gluten Free
A 100% gluten free bakery. We got focaccia, a piece of focaccia pizza, a beignet, and a cannoli type pastry. The beignet wasn’t my taste, but the cannoli thing was good. It was sort of like a hard puff pastry that was spiraled and filled with custard. Yum! The pizza was also very good. Highly recommend stopping here if you’re in Genoa!
Trattoria Alle due Torri
This restaurant has a separate gluten free menu (you must ask for it). Prices are about 4 euro more than their non-gluten free counterparts. I had homemade pasta with pesto, Ahmed got a non-gluten free pasta with pesto, cream, and cherry tomato. We got gluten free tiramisu for dessert to share, which wasn’t bad. The pastas were the star here! We got bread with our cover charge, and they brought me gluten free bread which was nice (not everywhere does this). Overall, we’d recommend dinner here.
Lo Stramburger
Located in the Boccadasse neighbourhood. They have gluten free brioche buns, which are wrapped in foil to avoid cross contamination. They also have gluten free fries! I had the Apple and Brie burger, which was good but the toppings were put on weird so you couldn’t get a bite with everything. Ahmed had the caliente burger. Large, good burgers! The fries also very good. Worth a stop!
Grom
A 100% gluten free gelato chain. We’ve eaten here in multiple Italian cities. We got the special chocolate cone, which was good. I think I chose poorly on the flavours as they didn’t taste like much here. This location had small portions for the price compared to other gelato places we’ve enjoyed.
Exultate
They have gluten free pizzas. These are a bit thicker than most other Italian pizzas we’ve tried, but still with a thin outside crust. We thought the dough might be premade or frozen. Overall, it was okay – not the best we’ve had in Italy but not the worst!
Cremeria Buonafede
This is an ice cream and coffee place. It’s a popular spot with locals. The affogato seems to be the go-to. We got gelato. They have their flavours online with allergens and which are gluten free (only 3 are not – hazelnut and two with cookies).
A “Do not recommend”:
There is one spot that popped up over and over in my research as being a great option: Don’Cola. I want to mention that we had awful service and I’m pretty sure they served me regular arancini instead of gluten free ones. As such, I’d recommend skipping it and trying somewhere else if you can.
Map of Genoa Gluten Free Options
If you want more options, here is the Wanderlog map I made of everywhere I could find that had good gluten free reviews, labelled menus, and/or indications that gluten free was safe at their restaurants. Please note that I did not personally eat at all these restaurants, so do your own due diligence and reach out or check their websites/menus ahead of your visit.
HOW TO USE THE MAP: Click on the Wanderlog logo in the bottom right corner to open the full-size map up in a new tab. There, you can choose to just look at one category at a time or see all the categories on the map at once (click the 3 squares in the top right to choose). You can also export the map to Google Maps, share the map with others, or save the map.
