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Many thanks to all of you who sent info and encouragement about my upcoming trip to Italy.  What a truly lovely response.  The short answer was overwhelmingly that Italy is THE place to travel gluten free.  That was quite a surprise.  My apologies for my delay in getting this back out to all of you.  Hope it is as helpful and inspiring to others as it is for me!  This is my second try.  My first one was rejected as too long!

Candace

Almost anywhere you go they will know what Celiac is and be able to prepare you a safe meal. The least stressful travel I have taken since my diagnosis.  I went with 1/2 a suitcase full of easy meals and snacks and returned after a week with almost all of them uneaten.  "Sono Celiaca" and "senza glutine" is all you need to know. If you are really nervous, print one of the restaurant cards in Italian, but they are really knowledgable and it's something the country does amazingly well.  You'll be able to eat pretty much anywhere with a real kitchen (so a snack bar or road-side stand maybe not).
In Florence a trip up to Fiesole to visit Fattoria di Maiano is worth it for the gluten free focaccia - just call first to make sure that the chef familiar with Celiac who makes it is still there.

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Don't miss gelato...My granddaughter was there on a People to People trip a couple of years ago and was hooked.  There are a couple of gelato shops in our area but they're not the same. 
Italian health officials consider celiac a "social disease" that interferes with a normal lifestyle which includes eating out.  As a result, part of heath budge provides  educated for restaurants, as well as hospital and schools, on how do gluten free.   
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Absolutely no worries anywhere in Italy.  They are light years ahead of the states and you will find GF options almost everywhere you go.
GF Pastries, pizza, ice cream cones -you name it.  My son went last summer and loved it.
Milan - Glu Free bakery & Be Bop
Florence - Hostaria il Desco

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In Florence, I highly recommend Hosteria Il Desco.  We went there multiple times!

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You’ll probably hear this from others, but Italy is easy. Very Celiac-aware. Even in places with just a few tables and 3 or 4 things on the menu, it’s not unusual for the kitchen to have excellent gluten-free pasta on hand, and to be totally read in on contamination issues, the need for separate water and so forth. It’s heavenly. As in any other part of the world fast food joints selling mass-produced food are not good for us. Little neighborhood places, however, can be extraordinary. 
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When you are in Florence - do not miss Ciro and Sons!!! Absolutely the best dinner I have ever had.  So good we went back the second night.  I was so full, but still ordered dessert, as that is such a rare treat in the US.  You need to make reservations, as it is a very popular place for celiacs and non-celiacs alike. http://www.ciroandsons.com <http://www.ciroandsons.com/>
Have a great time!!!!

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Here is a NYT column by a guy whose wife has celiac, and he calls Italy gluten-free heaven and one of the best destinations in Europe for somebody who is GF.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/travel/gluten-free-dining-in-italy.html?_r=0 <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/travel/gluten-free-dining-in-italy.html?_r=0>
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Here are recommendations I sent to another list member who was asking about Italy. I'm not sure if they ever summarized, but you might check the archives - it was September 2015. They said someone else had recommended the same restaurant as me behind the Duomo.
We had the BEST (GF) Italian food last year [Sept 2014] in Florence, at a restaurant situated right behind the Duomo. They had a sign out front [mentioning gluten-free] & a menu.
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You are in for an AMAZING treat!!
First of all, make sure you get a book called "Gluten free Guide to Italy" that has a ton of excellent resource info for each stop on your trip. She updates it every couple years.
In Florence:
Ciro and Sons is an Italian restaurant that might make you suspicious with a name party in English that it isn't one of the best restaurants around, but my very picky non Celiac and Italian husband found it as incredible as I did. They make handmade out of this world delicious gluten-free pizza dough that they can make any pizza for you with. And this isn't like American pizzeria pizza, it's next level delicious. But this is key, they need 24 hour advance order of the dough, so make sure you make a reservation a day ahead for specifically the plan to have a GF pizza. I will tell you that we did that for our first night there and then literally every day just kept ordering one for the next day and going back over and over.
There is also a gluten-free bakery in Florence, a bit off the central area but totally walkable from the Duomo or the train station (maybe a 20 minute walk? Or a quick cab ride!). It's called Sta Bene senza glutine and I don't know about you, but my #1 most missed food is buttery flaky croissants and pastries. This place has croissants, cronuts, pastries that you truly, truly will not believe are gluten-free.
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Good timing. 
I don’t know if you saw the post I sent out earlier this month, but after a 2-week journey to ITALY in late June/early July, I just released my latest e-book: Gluten-Free in ITALY: Your Worry-Free & Gluten-Free Travel Guide to Italy.  In it, I share dozens of personally-vetted dining recommendations for Rome, Florence, and Venice -- along with maps showing the proximity of recommended restaurants to major tourist sites. Nothing could make planning a successful GF trip to Italy easier, AND it will save you hours and hours of legwork. You can even use the book as your own itinerary, since each of the 13 chapters focuses on major sites in a particular area of each city. This e-book can be read on any computer, tablet, e-reader, or even a smartphone.
Amazon.com <http://amazon.com/>:  http://amzn.to/2aamE5t <http://amzn.to/2aamE5t>
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My husband and I went to Italy in 2015. There are several apps for GF people like "Find me GF" and "Gluten Free". These apps where helpful in finding places when we went exploring away from my previously researched zones. Many restaurants were understanding and fully equipped to handle full on GF. In Florence the GF was everywhere. In many cases they have been GF a lot longer than America. There were GF soups, pastas, meats, veggies and desserts at many restaurants. =============
I love Italy , and have been to all of these places.  I find that the Italians have the GF thing down, and seem to understand it very well.  Most restaurants have GF options--just say 'senza glutine' (SEN-za GLUE-tin-ay) and they will guide you.  Eating GF is a snap.
Apart from dining, I have some cool things for you to check out:
Lake Como tips: 
Visit the Volta temple--a beautiful classical temple dedicated to Lake Como's favorite son, Alex Volta, the developer of the battery. 
You will be taking a boat trip I'm sure--take the slow boat out (to Bellagio or wherever you want to lunch) and the FAST boat back.  
  I stayed in the Hotel Metropole, and it had a lake view, and classic old rooms with huge marble bathrooms.  There is a tram near the town of Como to goes up to the top of the mountains on the east side of the lake--there are cool little restaurants up there--we watched a sunset while eating GF pasta on a balcony overlooking the lake.  Divine! But don't miss the last tram down!
 Venice--what can I say?  For a quick and inexpensive meal, there is a little restaurant right on St. Mark's square just across the way from the Basilica--sort of kitty corner from it--they are really good and don't gouge.  There are lists of GF places to eat in Venice, but really I had no problems eating there at all.
Florence--if you want to see the Uffizi, go early and buy tickets for later in the day--it's sort of like making a reservation.  If you're up for it, definitely climb to the top of Il Duomo for the view--it is something like 450 steps, but so worth it.  
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