We will be in Italy over Thanksgiving. Can we take our own food ?

Question

We are staying in an apt. and the kids want a traditional meal. What will be available to us - turkey, cornbread, pumpkin either canned or fresh? And can we take what we can't get with us? We will be in Venice. Thanks!

Answer 1

I imagine everything but cornbread should be readily available. For some reason, Europeans (at least, the places I've been) don't seem to do cornbread. It's difficult even finding cream corn.

Answer 2

I think you won't find problems.

Italian food is very light.

No pepper, no sauce.

As breakfast, we eat: milk with cereals, capuccino or cafe or tea with some buiscuits or nutella (chocolate). Sometimes (only in the hotels): bread, butter and marmalade.

Lunch for workers is a short meal: bread with salami, pizza, or pasta, lasagne sometimes rich salad or meat..Dinner: soup, pasta, pizza, meat with butter, gnocchi, cheese, fruit exc...

Food is one of the fewest things which I love of Italy ;o)

Have a good Journey!Venice is a beautiful city!

Answer 3

As cooley mentioned whole birds are difficult to find.  Last year I decided to make a big Thanksgiving dinner for everyone and actually did have to improvise a bit.  I am in Tuscany on the coast, if you are closer to a big city you might have more luck.  I did however get a turkey.  I visited a Polleria (like a butcher but for poultry) and asked them about getting a turkey.  They were able to provide one for me.  You might think about asking in advance at a local market so they can locate one for you for the big day.  I did notice after I had already asked that the Essalunga supermarket had whole birds the week of Thanksgiving.  I did not see them before or after so they must have known there would be a lot of Americans in looking.

I never found canned pumpkin and was only able to locate squash in the markets.  I never found cranberries- fresh, frozen or canned.  I also never found sweet potatoes or yams.  However, I occasionaly see yams in the markets, but it is not a regular thing, just hit or miss.

Of course you can do mashed potatoes no problem, and make your own gravy and stuffing.  What else am I missing.....  Oh Apple pie, you can buy one, but they are not the same, they are so easy to make and you will definitely find apples.

Cooley is right about the oven though.  My turkey *barely* fit.  I was thinking I was going to have to cut the legs off or something but I managed to tie them up and make it work.  But the ovens here are MUCH smaller than the one you are used to using.

Lastly, if you are staying with Italian friends or make friends in the area be sure to invite them.  We ended up inviting a lot of people because everyone was so interested in seeing this big thanksgiving meal- especially the stuffed bird.  Though I usually cook my stuffing outside of the bird I ended up putting some in the cavity at the end because they could not hold back their excitement at seeing the "stuffed bird"    Good luck and have fun!

Answer 4

You can bring can pumpkin, cornbread mix, canned cranberry sauce, can gravy etc. They have turkey meat in Italy. They have fresh pumpkins in the markets.  They have potatoes so you can make mashed potatoes. They have apple pie(a  crostata=pie)and they have canned veggies.

Remember that the luggage weight limit is 50 pounds per bag and  the new regulations are 1 bag per person. You better check with your airline company on its rule.

Answer 5

As someone else told you, you can commonly find turkey meat here. However, it's difficult to find a whole turkey if you want to roast one. You might look somewhere around Vicenza where there's a base with a lot of personnel from the US. The oven in your apartment may not be big enough to hold a whole bird either. Pumpkin (zucca) is readily available everywhere - it won't be identical to the one's in the US, but the taste can be matched. Yams and potatos are also everywhere. Cornbread and cranberries will be the hard part to find here. I've been here for about 9 years and have been able to put together a reasonable approximation for myself without a lot of difficulty. You can even watch the football games over the internet here now although they start a lot later in the day.

Answer 6

Anything you need is available in Italy.  Taking food could be expensive and very complicated.

Answer 7

you can find what you want in the supermarket: meat, fish, fresh or canned vegetables, as you like...

i think you can take something with you on the plane, but only in packed in the luggages...

anyway, i'm sure that italian diet will be better for you all.

Answer 8

Why not mix it up and make a special Thanksgiving.  Serve a Turkey (which you can buy there) with garlic bread or pasta on the side!