Kosher Travel In Italy: Best Restaurants, Experiences & Cities To See

We just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and wanted to do something special. We were in lockdown for Covid during our 20th. The world of kosher travel is bigger than ever. The world of safe places for visible Jews to travel is getting smaller. With those two things in mind, we chose Italy. The Italian Jewish community is over 2000 years old. There is so much history there: Our people were conquered by the Romans in 70CE when they sacked Jerusalem, destroyed our Temple and took us to Rome on slave ships. While there were many good times too, we cannot forget how our people were trapped in ghettos, endured the Inquisition and then the Holocaust in this place. Today, Italy is one of the safest places for Jews in Europe. We saw almost no anti-Jewish sentiment while we were there, which we are grateful for.

We followed the food and we had an amazing time doing so, as many typically non-kosher experiences are now available for observant Jews. We began in Rome, which is the Jewish food capital of Italy. As of this writing, there are over fifteen kosher restaurants, mostly in the ghetto, plus a gelato shop and bakery. My goals in Rome were to eat in as many of the restaurants as possible, wander the streets and buy non-name brand authentic Italian leather – great price and quality.

Our favorite dairy experience was Bona Pizza. It was originally part of the Alice Pizza chain. The pizza is authentic square Roman pizza and has the most amazing fresh toppings. We loved the Ricotta e Viscole at Baghetto Dairy – this is a Jewish Roman dessert that was a form of Jewish resistance. Hundreds of years, ago the pope made it illegal for the Jews in the ghetto to bake with cheese, so they hid their delicious sour cherry ricotta cheesecake under a pie crust top and kept enjoying life. 

We loved Bella Carne street food. They have the most delicious Italian deli sandwiches that look a lot like the non-kosher variety! We also loved Renato Al Ghetto. The meat pizza was amazing. We did a kosher food tour in the ghetto, which meant we got to eat and learn. We ate our Shabbos meals at Bella Carne and davened at the Great Synagogue, which was a very cool experience as the Italki tradition has many similar and different elements to ours.

Next we went to Tuscany, which was out of a storybook! There are two kosher restaurants there connected to kosher wineries. We went to both. Cantina Guiliana had options to book truffle hunting tours, which we did, pasta making classes, which we did and then the option of eating the truffle and pasta you made at their restaurant, which we did! The lunch menu is dairy, the dinner one is meat. The takeaway menu has even more options. We loved the food and wine there and rented a boat one day (to escape the brutal heat), enjoyed the coast and a delicious kosher picnic lunch on our boat. As a modest dresser who does not wear a bathing suit in public, renting a boat on vacation and taking it to a private cove is a way I get a chance to do some suntanning and swimming in a bathing suit (things I enjoyed doing in my pre-orthodox days) while staying true to my beliefs. 

Next we went to Terra Di Seta. It’s an hour south of Cantina Guiliana. The topography is a little different there. Vineyards everywhere – both locations are beautiful. We did a wine tour and tasting at Terra Di Seta. They receive the top Chianti region wine award for excellence in wine. They only offer dairy on their menu. The food was also delicious and their take out menu is different than the restaurant one. Both are worth visiting but if you only have time for one and are prioritizing food, go to Cantina Guiliana.

For Shabbos, we headed to Venice. We ate at Gam Gam – they offered all three meals there, got cookies at a local kosher bakery, a fruit smoothie at Frui La La, a stand that has two locations with kosher smoothies and mixed drinks. We ate at BaGhetto on Sunday. All the food was delicious. We davened by Chabad, they are super warm and welcoming. We took a gondola ride Saturday night, which was very underwhelming. We enjoyed the water taxis much more. On shabbos we wandered the streets in the early evening, once the heat of the day passed. And we drank a lot of wine the entire trip. We felt safe, we saw beautiful sites, ate delicious food, drank delicious wine. It was a wonderful place to celebrate such an important milestone in our lives and enjoy our time together!

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