tap water in restaurants

FWIW, all the bottled water we got at restaurants was in glass bottles. And they do recycle. (Also FWIW, the phrase for tap water is "acqua di rubinetto.")

Cathy, I've never been too successful at getting Aqua dal Rubinetto in Italian restaurants, so have just resigned myself to the fact that I'll be ordering a bottle with meals. The half litre size usually isn't too expensive, so that's not a huge issue for me. Fortunately I have never made the mistake of ordering Aqua dal Gabinetto, as one traveller reported on a travel message board. I agree with the first reply that it's probably rare for Italians to ask for tap water, as they seem to use bottled water most of the time. I once asked one of my Italian Instructors (a lovely lady from Padova) about drinking tap water in Italy. She looked at me with a horrified expression and said "do you want to DIE". That may provide some insight into the attitudes there. A couple of points to consider. Bottled water is likely a good "revenue generator" for Italian restaurants, so they may want to perpetuate that. Also, many Italians seem to prefer carbonated water, so that eliminates tap water. Finally, Italians seems to be getting more serious about recycling so maybe the "bottle issue" is of less importance. On my trip last year, I noticed numerous recycling bins in Milano Centrale and other stations. I always carry a water bottle, and have to admit I've "sneaked" a drink from that on occasion (when the "paid" bottle is empty). Cheers!

Yeah, I know that's the phrase for tap water, because I kept saying it, and they kept looking at me like I was an alien. One or two places gave us water in plastic bottles and the rest were glass. But creating, transporting, and recycling glass (or plastic) bottles uses energy, and it is by far more environmental to drink tap water. In fact, transporting glass bottles (full of water, and then for recycling) uses more energy than transporting plastic, since the glass is so much heavier. Europe is so much more advanced than the US in many aspects of environmentalism and energy frugality (I LOVED that many housing and business parking lots in had solar panels that doubled as shade for cars). So I'm just a bit surprised by the unavailability of tap water (and annoyed by the extra cost).

I'm not arguing that bottled water is anywhere NEAR as environmentally friendly as tap. Just that glass bottles are better than plastic, as I'm sure you agree. It is a shame that they don't drink tap water more.

Cathy, The recycling efforts in Italy (as elsewhere) are likely a "work in progress" to some extent. The Waiter may have had the same attitude as my Italian Instructor, and therefore the concept of drinking tap water horrified him. I'm not sure it's really much of an issue to process glass or plastic water bottles? We have an extensive recycling network here, with the trucks transporting a variety of items. While it does use energy to operate the trucks and re-process the items into other products, that would be happening with or without the plastic or glass water bottles. Plastic water bottles are fairly light, so it doesn't use an appreciably greater amount or energy to transport them with the other recycled items. Cheers!

Glass is better than plastic in some ways (it seems to get recycled more often, and isn't made from petroleum), but it is much heavier, so that factors into transportation costs (from manufacturing plant to filling plant, from filling plant to restaurant, and from restaurant to recycling plant). Ken, many people seem to think that as long as something is recycled, it has no environmental impact, but it does - the manufacture, transport, and recycling all take energy. And recycling rates are FAR from 100%. Plus, to reuse glass, it must be the right color, so some countries collect, but then ship to other countries, glass of the "wrong" color. Thus - even more transportation fuel. So I'm sure we can all agree - drinking tap water is more environmental than drinking bottled water (even if you recycle), and of course recycling is better than not recycling.

You must have misread RS. Asking for tap water at the table in a restaurant in Italy is extremely rare for Italians to do. I would even go so far as to say it's practically unheard of. You probably also learned that you have two choices when it comes to bottled water - carbonated and non-carbonated. "Frizzante" for the first or "senza gas" for the second.

Maybe you're right that it wasn't RS. I just searched my guidebooks on my kindle, and it's Lonely Planet that gave me the false sense of tap water being available at restaurants: "A declaration that acqua dal rubinetto (tap water) will do instead of bottled is becoming less disconcerting in the age of environmental awareness." and then, "REVOLUTION ON TAP - Still or sparkling aren't your only water choices in Italy, where 270 brands of bottled water add up to a €5 billion industry. But now that designer waters are hitting €5 per bottle and littering the countryside with discarded plastic containers, Italian diners are rebelling and demanding tap. As Italian comedian Beppe Grillo protests: 'It's putting rain in a bottle and then making you pay for it.' Join the revolt, or stick to your bubbly bottled Pellegrino with pride -- just don't forget to recycle." I guess Lonely Planet was mostly wrong (I did get tap water at one place). But RS does list in a few places how to say "tap water" in Italian, so that also led to my belief that it was something that could be asked for. I do agree with Lonely Planet that it is an environmental disaster that so many people (all over the world) drink bottled water in disposable plastic bottles when the tap water tastes perfectly fine.

Five trips to Italy, and I have always asked for and received tap water "acqua del rubinetto", however, I did get charged once in Rome but when I questioned it, they took it off the bill. It is hard to understand why Italians are so adverse to tap water as I'm sure it is the same delicious water that comes out of the fountains.

To the commenter who thinks the tap water is the same delicious stuff that comes from the fountains, I'm not so sure. In the large building that I live in, there is a sort of water treatment plant in the basement and they add some sort of chemical to it. Beyond washing myself, the dishes, and brushing my teeth with it, I would never want to drink it. I would suspect that a lot of larger buildings (in which restaurants are often located on the ground level) do things like this, whether to keep the pipes from calcifying or who knows what. Some restaurants serve purified tap water in a refillable glass bottle; they have a machine that chills, purifies, and, as the case may be, carbonates the water. The environmental impact notwithstanding (and again, many restaurants use glass which is then recycled), I'm going to stick with the bottled water when I'm eating out. Or you could just stick to wine...

I do take exception with the focus on fuel costs and things like that. Human ecology is the most important variable: what are we putting into our bodies? Basically, this is the way I see it: Spring water served in plastic: plastic made from petroleum and who-knows-what, environmental estrogens and other effects on the water contained therein, goes to a landfill, transportation costs, long-term impact, etc. Tap water: served in glass, but treated with who-knows-what-chemicals that you are then consuming; environmental impact of reservoir, water treatment plant, etc. Spring water served in glass: not putting chemicals in one's body, goes to landfill (or, very often in Italy, into a recycling process); transportation costs, impact, etc. None of the options are perfect, but if I have to weigh things like fuel costs against loading my body with weird chemicals (from plastic bottles or from tap water), I come down squarely on the side of spring water in glass bottles, wherever it is available.

Italy is so firmly based in tradition. Never once while eating out with my relatives or friends there did they order tap water. It's just something they do not do. It does not have anything to do with the quality of the tap water, because as like some have mentioned, some of these cities have public fountains that are perfectly safe to drink from. And on the topic of iced tea, I have never seen an Italian drink iced tea! Which is probably why the cost is so high. And on the topic of the environment - some of these companies that supply restaurants with bottled water turn around and reuse (not recycle) their glass bottles. Some families get glass bottled delivered to their home, place the used ones back in the cases which are picked up and from there they are cleaned and reused.