All’Improvviso – Pizzeria e Pasticceria senza glutine

All’Improvviso is a gluten-free pizzeria, restaurant and pastry shop in the Coteto district of Livorno, opened in 2006 by Debora Pagni. For twenty years it has served the food of Livorno and Tuscany in gluten-free versions, so that people with coeliac disease can enjoy local flavours together with everyone else.

The speciality is the 5&5, Livorno’s own street food: hot chickpea torta in a flatbread, made here gluten-free as well, the only place in town to do so. There is also chickpea torta by the slice, castagnaccio (chestnut cake) in autumn, seafood dishes and more than thirty pizzas, also lactose-free and vegan. The pastry shop makes traditional Tuscan sweets every day, all gluten-free: cantuccini with pistachio, hazelnut, almond or chocolate, ricciarelli, tarts and the Easter schiacciata, as well as cakes to order, croissants and fresh pastries.

The kitchen, oven and fryer are used only for gluten-free food, and every other ingredient is gluten-free; regular, wholegrain and 7-grain pizzas are baked in a separate oven. The restaurant is a member of the Italian Coeliac Association (AIC) “Alimentazione Fuori Casa” programme. In 2012 it won second place in the gluten-free category of the World Pizza Championship in Rimini.

There is a free play area for children, birthday parties are organised and the garden opens in summer. Free home delivery across Livorno. For travellers leaving the port for Sardinia, Corsica or Elba, it also prepares gluten-free travel boxes to order.

Pizzeria open Wednesday to Sunday, 5pm to midnight; pastry shop Monday to Saturday, 8am to noon, to order.