If there is one thing that Italy is famous for other than pizza and pasta, it has to be the incomparable gelato you can buy on pretty much every street corner or, if in Rome, at what feels like every third shop on the street. When your children have allergies, finding safe desserts is almost always the most difficult challenge when you eat out and even in Rome, was more of a challenge that we would have liked. Lots of shops do offer gluten-free cones or, of course, you can buy a scoop or two in a paper cup instead; and if you’re happy to eat fruity sorbets, then there are some great safe options to be had. Unfortunately, G is not a fan of the sharper flavours of a sorbet and at one point I did wonder if we might end up without trying this delicious Italian treat during our Roman sojourn. However, we did find a couple of gems and I had to share them with you:
Magnum Pleasure Store
: We’d wandered past the Magnum Pleasure Store a couple of times on our way to and from our apartment and on one particularly scorching afternoon, we decided it was worth a shot to see if we could find a dairy-free option to help G and M cool down. They are both big fans of vegan Magnums here in the UK with G favouring the almond version over the plain vegan option that M enjoys. It seemed like a good starting point to find an ice-cream for us all, so it was disappointing to discover that there were no vegan ice-creams to be seen. They selected a cold drink instead whilst Mike chose the toppings for his designer magnum at the behest of both children – the speciality of the pleasure store.
I headed to the freezer to see what I could find and struck proverbial gold. They might not have stocked vegan magnums, but instead I stumbled across the fantastically named “Bikini 1969”, a gluten- and dairy-free ice-cream sandwich bar. Needless to say, both G and M were quick to take up my offer to try this treat – their first ice-cream sandwiches ever – and what a hit it was. We didn’t quite make it back there every day, but we did partake of an ice-cream from the Magnum pleasure store more than once during our stay.
Sublime Gelateria
: This was another unexpected find during our time in Rome and one that we came across disappointingly late in our trip, especially given its proximity to where we were staying. Situated just a couple of doors down from Mama Eat Lab, M spotted this gelateria thanks to the duck-egg blue Vespa in the doorway and the brightly coloured sign next to its entrance stating it had vegan-friendly and gluten-free goodies inside. Having struggled our way through the impressive 3-course meal at Mama Eat Lab, none of us had space for a sneaky ice-cream, not even M, but we vowed to head back the following day and even managed a return visit as we headed back to the airport on our final day.
All of the ice-creams were clearly marked with the red scoops depicting those flavours that were safe for vegans and therefore for our dairy-free duo. What was fantastic was that there was a great mix of traditional ice-cream flavours, fruit sorbets and some more unusual ones for us to try and they all tantalised the taste-buds. I can’t quite remember all of the flavours we tried between us, but I know chocolate orange, fig, peach and lime were amongst them. Once again it was fantastic to see G and M experiencing being able to order a gluten-free cone filled with 2 scoops of their choice of an array of safe ice-cream flavours, something they’ve never been able to do before.
M and I are also big fans of sorbet and we have enjoyed some deliciously indulgent home-made lemon, orange or raspberry sorbet over the years. I even attempted a wine sorbet, thanks to the recipe book that came with my machine, but it was a disappointing disaster that really couldn’t be saved.
Interestingly, for a savoury food lover, I was delighted to shortlist as many of my personal favourites from the sweet selection as from the savoury. The hardest part now is knowing where to start in sharing those I think note-worthy, but let me begin with this gluten-, dairy- and soya-free 
tasty and a much simpler offering than the chicken roll we recently reviewed from 
Likewise,the spices in London Falafel‘s 
well-known counterpart and as well as being corn and quinoa-based, thus rendering them a perfect snack for me, they are also fantastically gluten- and dairy-free and therefore a great and safe cheesy snack for G. I would love to see these sold in single portion packs and then stocked in mainstream supermarkets as part of their meal-deal offerings, but, for now, I’ll take them anyway I can.
For those with a sweeter tooth, these 2 picks were delightfully indulgent and unbelievably freefrom. These incredible Raw 
salted caramel choc ices, well, words simply fail me. They tasted just like the real thing and once again I would defy anybody to be able to tell the difference between these and a cows milk ice-cream alternative. The salted caramel flavour was there, but not overpowering, which made them a real winner in my books.
I also loved the CocoMojo 
Choc Chip Matcha Energy Ball didn’t taste as heavy or as cloying in the mouth as some of the others did to me and the hint of peppermint was an unexpected and refreshing twist on an otherwise plain chocolate flavour. This category caused perhaps the most division in the judges of all those sessions Mike and I were a part of and the final result was a hotly contested decision.
7 years to diagnosis 