Verona: Organic cafes, restaurants and eateries

Meat-lovers, be brave in Verona: All the places I found serving organic food are vegetarian or even vegan.

Piu Gusto Bio offers organic breakfast, health food for lunch as well as coffee and cake. They have outdoor seating on the main street, so unless the corona virus forces you to avoid closed rooms it's nicer to sit inside in the pleasantly decorated air-conditioned cafe. For lunch there are tasty sandwiches and daily changing plates with wholefood preparations inspired by the suggestions of the Havard School of Public Health for a healthy eating plate. Around 2pm choice was limited, but the broiled zucchini and fennel, the aubergine-bean mixture and the falafel-style bean balls were very nice and not as bland as health food often uses to be. All food is vegetarian, most of it vegan. While the coffee was nice (well, it's Italy after all), the chocolate cake was dry and crumbly.

More to try

Satisfied there was no need to proceed to the Ziga bar north of the Adige river, in the neighbourhood of Borgo Trento which promises a little more elaborated vegetarian, though only partially organic lunch and dinner, natural wines and organic beer.

For vegan sweets, coffee, a soup or savoury snack I have Dulcamara bakery cum self-service day cafe on my list, but my time between two trains did not allow for more than one lunch and an ice-cream.

For vegan organic pizza and pasta try La Laterna. Their signature dish is bigoli (thick "spaghetti-like" pasta) alla carbonara, and I'm curious how they interpret this rather un-vegan recipe in a vegan style.

Map of all places listed in this article

Piu Gusto Bio, Stradone Porta Palio, 36, Mon–Fri(Sat) 7:30(9)–15 until end of September, Sat closed in August
Ziga, Via IV Novembre, 1/B, daily 11–15:30, 19–22:30
Dulcamara, Via Francesco Berni 7, Tue–Sat 9–15
La Lanterna, Piazzetta Portichetti 6, daily 12:30–15, 19–23

Probably closed

Some years ago I found the following pizzeria in Borgo Trento on the web, but all references to opening hours have been gone, so I suppose that the place shut down:

Pizza al Tòcco, Via Giuseppe Cesare Abba, 13, formerly Tue–Sat 11–14, Tue–Sun 18–22

Verona: Organic ice-cream

My stays in Verona usually fill the time between two legs of a train ride: Sufficient time for a refreshing organic ice-cream in the old town – in the summer 2022 even for lunch – and to shop travel provisions. The most important learning to begin with: 2 pm on a Tuesday afternoon turns out to be the wrong time for a gelato.

My first address is the fully organic ice-cream shop Come una volta ("Just like once upon a time"). When closed the shop, located on a street corner in the old town, looks abandoned, and you may start to feel nervous when a minute before the announced opening hour there's still no light to be seen. Be calm: At the exact hour the shop assistant will arrive, unlock the doors and, within a minute, serve your order: Unusual for an ice-cream parlour the containers with the creamy, well-balanced ice-cream are closed and hidden from the visitor's eyes. Unfortunately the shop is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

If so proceeded to the second best, yet older one: The partially organic ice-cream parlour L'Arte del Gelato has been serving artisanal ice-cream since 2002 using organic sugar, chocolate, mint extract and fruit. The milk is produced by South-Tyrolean farms but not certified organic. I was really looking forward to taste their ice-cream again in 2021 as it had been a lip-smacking creamy experience some years before. But unfortunately I met barred doors, with a display of tempting ice-cream cakes behind since I came there on a Tuesday. In 2022 it seems however that they are back to pre-corona everyday opening hours, but I did not have sufficient time to step by.

On the aforementioned day-trip to Verona I also tried to find Gelateria Natù in the neighbourhood of Santa Croce, with little success which again had to do with a train to catch too soon. Their website was kept up to date until 2020 but I do not know whether they are still serving natural artisanal ice-cream made from organic milk and nuts. Apart from the milk-based varieties there were some vegan fruit flavours and a number of lactose and glutine free nut and chocolate flavours made with rice drink. Besides they use agave syrup instead of sugar. You may also come here for a coffee, pastry or aperitif but I cannot say whether you have organic options here. Note that this place obeys the typical Italian closing time around noon.

Gelateria biologica "Come una Volta", Via Pellicciai 11, Wed–Sun 14–19:30, from July Wed–Sat 14:30–21:30(23), Sun 14:30–20
L'Arte del Gelato, Via Leoni 3, Sun–Thu(Fri–Sun) 10:30–23(24)
Gelateria Natù, Via Giuseppe Verdi 7b, Tue–Sun 8:30–13, daily 15–22

Verona: Zero Waste

So far I haven't found dedicated organic zero-waste shops which sell most of the food items from self-service dispensers in the Veneto yet. Italians are very fond of nice packaging, and even in dedicated organic supermarkets the cashier will helpfully offer you a (bio-degradable) bag. But the times are changing, and declining it will no longer be met with unbelief.

In fact all NaturaSi supermarkets I visited in 2022 and 2021 (namely the ones in Selvazzano Dentro, Abano Terme and the one in Verona's neighbourhood of San Zeno a little North-West of the Porta Nuova train station) not only offer most fruits and vegetables without packing, but also a small selection of dry food from gravity bins which you weigh into your own (pre-weighted) boxes and jars. In addition the San Zeno shop offers loose-weight household detergents to be bought by the gram.

As of NaturaSi's information the same should also apply to the branches in the neighbourhood of Veronetta and in the suburb of San Massimo (which also sports an organic day cafe).

NaturaSi San Zeno, Via Carlo Pisacane 2/a, Mon-Sat 9-14,16-20, closed Nov 1st and Dec 12th, 2022
NaturaSi Veronetta, Via Francesco Torbido 11/b, Mon-Sat 9-20
NaturaSi San Massimo, Corso Milano 110, Mon-Sat 8-20

Italy: Verona

Verona is called by many Italian long and regional trains. Coming from the north, the city can easily be reached with the frequent EC trains operated by Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB) in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn (DB), These trains come with a separate bicycle car. Some of them run to and from Venice, with a longer stop in Verona, some start here. If you want to take a bike with you it's advisable to book in advance, and when Deutsche Bahn tells you that bike space was no longer available try ÖBB directly.

You can also set out on several bicycle routes running through Verona.