037: Eating gluten-free in Italy with Anna Vocino

Living Villa Cappelli

While Italy is known as the land of pasta and pizza, it is actually very easy to avoid gluten here. Italians are very aware of celiac disease and even have entire grocery store aisles full of gluten-free products. Anna Vocino, a great friend to Villa Cappelli, the voice at the start of every podcast, and a celiac herself, joins us to talk about her experiences visiting Italy.

Topics we cover:

• Anna's stay at Villa Cappelli several years ago
• Her aunt and uncle renewing their wedding vows in a church (Chiesa di Santa Maria di Cesano) from 1055 A.D.
• Anna and another woman, a Wiccan, helped officiated the renewals in a Catholic church. Thank goodness for language barriers!
• How Anna's daughter sang "Haulalula" at the ceremony
• Paul experience with New Kids on the Block
• Anna's experience watching us on The Pitch
• Anna and Paul's advice to young people in advertising or acting
• Woody Allen's movie Bananas
• How Anna and I don't eat sugar or grains
• Anna's diagnosis as a celiac and how she's dealt with it
• How you can find very good gluten-free pasta in Italy
• How easy it is to find restaurants in Italy that will serve you gluten-free dishes
• How Italians are very in tune with their bodies and very knowledgeable of anatomy
• How Italians eat a lot of vegetables, which might come have a bit to do with them eating off the land so much
• How it dawned us that all of our products are vegan, totally free of any animal products.
• Why Anna decided to start doing the podcast
• How No Sugar, No Grains (#NSNG) forces you to cut out processed foods and eat very intentionally, not just mindlessly
• How it was very easy to cut out just the pasta and bread to go no sugar, no grains
• How I lost 30 lbs. just cutting out the sugar and grains
• How women sometimes have more hormonal issues to fix when eating this way
• Anna now has learned she can't eat dairy as well

Find all things Anna at AnnaVocino.com

Listen to her on her podcast with Vinnie Tortorich here.

Here's just some of her work:

Do you have questions about being gluten-free in Italy? Or eating no sugar, no grains? Just let us know in the comments!