THat is very valuable information and I sincerely thank you for making this information available to everyone, however the idea of someone trying to get through over the phone to any type of "Italian authority" is funny to me. Sadly, anyone who belives that they have been poisioned and wants to phone "authorities" may die trying. I would say, go directly to the nearest hospital!

Follow the advice noted in Betsy's posting.

Funny about restaurants refusing to serve tap water...we ate at a mediocre restaurant by the Rome train station and we swear they kept refilling the same Pellegrino bottle with tap water, even though we were paying for new bottles.

I wouldn't worry about bathing in water with a little lead in it. I would worry about drinking it, cooking with it, and especially letting children consume it.

Do Italian restaurants cook with bottled water? If so, with gas or without gas?

Rufus most restaurants cook with tap water. But to answer your other question, some Italian cooks have gas and some don't. Mainly depends on their diet.

Actually, I was referring to Will's caution against cooking with tap water. I know restaurants don't cook with bottled water--you'd have trouble eating in Italy or anywhere else if you insisted that wherever you eat they don't cook with tap water. Though I guess if you offered to pay enough to have them cook with bottled water, they might accomodate you.

I remember sitting on the Ponte Vecchio one sunny afternoon, reading an article that said that Italy had some of the cleanest water in Europe. Just then someone upstairs flushed the illegal toilet, i looked out the window of the shop to watch the fishermen in their tiny boats bobbing around the Arno while they got plummeted by raw sewage. Ya! Really clean water! HA!

You think calling a plummer here in the US is expensive, try having pipes replaced in a mid- evil palazzo. Not too many people can afford that invoice. Go ahead and drink the tap if it tastes good to you and you want to save $2.00, but be forewarned. I don't think lead is good for anyone, young or old.

I don't think going to Italy and eating stuff cooked with tap water is a big concern, particularly for a two-week holiday.

Sorry if I made it sound that way. I just meant that if someone does have tap water that circulates through lead pipes, which it sounds like lots of Italians do, then I would not want to consume it regularly.

However, even then, if the water was only used for cooking, and then drained off (like say for pasta), I suspect there would be very little lead indeed.

However, I would recommend asking someone who is more versed in heavy metals than I am. I just know that low-grade lead poisoning is still a problem in some areas in the US with older housing (but from paint, not water).

Of course, hundreds of millions of people survived lead pipe plumbing, leaded gasoline, and leaded paint for many, many years with no ill effects. So old lead pipes in Italy aren't something to obesess over--especially if, as Will says, you're just on vacation for a few weeks.

I do remember reading something years ago about lead pipes (like other kinds of pipes) getting a coating of minerals from the water which prevents the lead from leaching out. However, the memory is a bit vague on the details.

RufusTFirefly, surely you've heard the theory that the Roman Empire was brought down by lead poisoning? It was either that or the barbarians or .... :)

I don't know about the Roman Empire, but you can't say that there were no ill effects. In children, low-level lead poisoning causes subtle neurological deficits and may never be noticed, except the child will never reach his full potential.

Rufus. Your memory is failing you because you orderd too much tap water in Italy! See what I mean?

Calamari, I read your comment about a toilet flushing into the Arno, but I guess I don't get your point. Are you suggesting that the drinking water comes out of the Arno untreated?

Hi all,

Re the effects of lead: chronic ingestion of low levels is a very subtle poison, the effects of which are hard to measure in individuals but can be determined from the effects on large groups.

See http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/wat...oval-water.htm

If you are worried you might become a victim (highly unlikely), the simplest thing to do is buy bottled water in GLASS bottles--no tampering problems with those. You can recycle the bottles easily. A bit heavy to drag around, so bring an empty plastic bottle with you and fill er up each day from your glass bottle.
FYI, we've only been living in Belgium for 4 years, but we've never seen a carafe of tap water served in any of the restaurants we've gone to (asking in French isn't the best thing to do in Flanders, anyway, better to ask in English).

I didn't say that no one suffered ill effects. Only that millions of people over many, many years drank water from lead pipe plumbing with no ill effects, and that it's nothing to get upset about over a 2 week vacation.

Patrick -
No, drinking water does not come out of the Arno untreated. It was merely a warning that next time you are fishing in the Arno, don't look up when you pass under the Pont Vecchio! Because when a pie hits your eye, it's NOT amore!