Drinking Water in Italy

I didn't find bottled water that terribly expensive when I was there last summer. What I did is found the nearest supermarket, got a couple big bottles (1.5 liters) and left them in my hotel room, got a couple small half-liter bottles to carry around with me and I would refill when I was out and about. The tap water in my hotel and fountain water in Rome was, in my experience, down right good. I also used tap water in Florence and fountains in Siena and found both fine, same for Venice. Can't speak towards the Cinque Terre but I imagine their tap/fountain water is fine too. And while I'm not terribly sensitive to tastes in water, I do always drink bottled or home-filtered water at home so I'm used to water that doesn't have a whole lot of taste. Hope this helps!

Debra is correct....purchase the bigger bottles at supermarkets if you wish....or use tap water...I've had no complaints in any of the spots you mention. One suggestion...if you get thirsty, see if you can find a 750 ml bottle or something similar at home, and bring it empty. For me, anyway, those 500 ml bottles in Europe are too small....and the 2 litre ones are too big to lug around!

Thank you so much for the quick response. I am bringing 20ounce bottles and will refill them with tap or supermarket water. We wanted to be cautious so none of us gets sick from the drinking water like you would in Mexico.

Thanks again

Getting water for a water bottle in Italy is super easy. I was just there a couple weeks ago. We always filled up at the hotel in the morning. There are a lot of public water fountains all over Italy. These are not the ones you see in the US. We also filled up in a Museum's bathroom sink or whereever else we found convenient and didn't have any problems. Our problem was trying not to put the bottle down and walking off without it.

Just watch for the "non potabile" signs on some of the water fountains. Those are not for drinking. But they're marked very clearly.

Just a question...why are you bringing 20 oz bottles to Italy? Seems like a terrible waste of packing space (and weight?)for something that is so readily available there.

We each took small water empty water bottle with us in our carry on. We filled them in the morning and took them with us sight seeing. We also filled up at the outdoor water fountains as needed in Rome. We had seen other people doing it on another trip which gave us the idea. The water is excellent. (you can't compare it to Mexico). My husband filled his bottle to hike the CT and filled it up again along the way. There is no need to buy water in Italy from what I've seen and experience. It was better then our water at home.

Can someone post a link to a photo of what the fountains look like? Hope this doesn't sound too stupid?

All the fountains in Rome have drinkable water (as far as I know) I filled water bottles as needed in the hotel before starting out for the day, and refilled as needed.

When biking in Sicily I even filled my water bottles along the road at "cow troughs" as long as there was no marking as "non potable"

For Daniella - Link to photos of some of the fountains ---- http://www.garden-fountains.com/fountains-of-rome/roman-water-fountains-home.htm

It's all safe. It might not taste very good but this is the western world and people can drink the water.

The only issue is, as Rick describes, some people may feel a little sick after drinking the water because of the bacterium in them. They're safe to drink, it's just that they are different bacterium than you are used to. For example, I got a little sick after drinking the water in Venice (which is actually mountain spring water and the "cleanest" on the trip) but had no problem with tap water elsewhere in Italy or in France.

I'm too lazy to re-read previous posts..but you won't be able to go thru the US control with carry on full water bottels...and unless you buy from street vendors or tourist boutiques..the water is not expensive...so don't worry. We refilled from fountains in Rome and drank and felt just fine...(and i'm also too lazy to change the spelling of bottle above)

Bottled water is expensive in restaurants but very affordable at grocery stores.

In Rome, keep your bottles and fill them at the fountains or nase drinking fountains that are common around town.

I don't recall seeing fountains for drinking in CT, Florence or Tuscany but you can drink tap water or buy at grocery stores.

I just returned from a 3 week trip in Italy. I found buying water a wasteful expense since there are drinking fountains everywhere. I too brought one 20 oz. Sigg bottle to drink from and saved a lot of money!

Bringing one water bottle per person is a great idea!

bottled water is not that expensive as it is in Paris. You can drink water anywhere. Don't worry about getting sick Italy is not Mexico and the water is like drinking water here in the States.

Actually Mark, Mexico is not that bad either for the most part anymore. I was in Puero Vallarta last year and the entire city now has really good quality drinking water.

We bought 1.5 litre bottles of water for as little as .27E at supermarkets, and never more than about 2E. BUT supermarket water is not cold, even water from "refrigerators" seemed only cool. Sidewalk vendors have cold water for about 1E for a 500ml bottle. We usually bought water, only filling from water fountains a few times. We saw people filling bottles at the large fountains (Trevi, and Spanish steps), but I wouldn't advise it. There were 4 of us and drank about 3-5 large bottles of water a day. Rome was very hot (95-100). Don't skimp on the water.

I just got back from 5 weeks in Sicily (archaeological dig). Most of the people bought water on the first day, and then refilled their bottles at a public drinking spring on the way every day. It was cool, refreshing, and also regularly tested for safety/quality (according to what I was told).

The water in Italy is for the most part better than you'll find in America. The fountains (spring-fed usually) have some of the tastiest water I've ever drank. I've seen places labeled non potable- but they were very rare. It seems that European water standards are higher than American ones.

As far as carrying water- I use a camel pack in the field (contains a bladder with a sip tube). I prefer it to carrying a bottle- and the water stays longer than in a regular bottle because it's insulated. The pack carries about 2 liters of water.

You might be able to find insulated water bottles in Europe- I would recommend insulated because of the heat. A clear and uninsulated bottle gets really hot in a hurry when it's in the sun!!!

We just got back from two very warm weeks and went to all of those destinations. We drank the tap and fountain water in florence, all along CT, Siena, San Gimignano, and most of all Rome. My only advice would be watch where others are drinking from. There were some places that looked like pigeon hangouts that we avoided, but most were fine. I saw very few marked non-potable.

The ones at the Roman Forum got a workout the day we were there. I think we went back 5 times!

we bought a 1.5 litre bottle and carried it the whole time.