A tourist’s insistence on drinking tap water at a five-star Alto Adige hotel has produced one of Italy’s more unusual legal precedents. It confirms what most Italian waiters have always assumed.
Italy’s Court of Cassation has ruled that being served tap water in a restaurant is not a consumer right. The ruling brought to a close a six-year legal battle.
The case originated in late 2019, when a tourist staying at a five-star hotel in Corvara, in the Alta Badia ski area of South Tyrol, repeatedly asked to be served tap water with her evening meals. She was on a half-board arrangement that included dinner but not drinks. Each night, she arrived at the table to find a 0.75-litre bottle of mineral water, priced at €7, in its place. According to court papers reported by Corriere Alto Adige, the hotel refused her requests even when she offered to pay for the water. He insisted, apparently, on bottled water only.
The tourist complained during her stay of being “constantly denied the opportunity to consume tap water, and instead being forced to purchase bottled water.” On returning home, she pursued legal action, arguing that water was “a natural resource and a universal human right” and that “the free provision of a minimum vital quantity is necessary to meet essential needs and must be guaranteed.” She also contended that tap water should be considered as much a part of a hotel’s basic service as “a bed with sheets, a warm room and soap in the bathroom.” She sought €2,700 in compensation for economic damage and emotional distress.
Courts all found in hotel’s favour
Both the first and second-instance courts dismissed her claim. The Court of Cassation, on final appeal, confirmed that no law in Italy obliges restaurant owners or hoteliers to serve customers tap water, and dismissed the case entirely.
The ruling reflects a longstanding norm in Italian dining culture, where asking for tap water — acqua del rubinetto — is widely regarded as a social solecism. The expectation that diners will order bottled water is so deeply embedded that it is often treated as a matter of professional etiquette rather than consumer choice.
That said, the cultural landscape is shifting. Growing environmental awareness and a generational push against single-use plastic have made tap water requests increasingly common, particularly among younger diners and tourists from northern Europe, where the practice is unremarkable.
A growing number of Italian restaurants now offer filtered or chilled tap water as a matter of course, sometimes charging a nominal table service fee in lieu of a bottle. The Court of Cassation’s ruling closes off the legal route to obliging them but does nothing to discourage the trend.
