Iatly - Is tap water Potable
 

Can anyone please confirm if tap water is potable i.e. can we drink water from tap in Rome, Florence, Venice?

Your quick revert will be much appreciated.

Regards.

I always do, but if you are worries bottled water is available everywhere and is cheap to buy in grocery stores.

The public supplies in those cities are all healthy and - give or take any issues with the individual building's own plumbing - you should be fine...

Worth noting however that Italians pay for, and consume, an average of some 194 litres of bottled water a year... and when you see the little old ladies staggering home with six packs of 1.5 litre bottles, you'll appreciate that it's not just a fashion statement!

Peter

I drink tap and bottled water, never had adverse reactions anywhere in Italy.

You have asked for a response (revert?) for several countries. In fact, Europe is quite civilized. We drink tap water in most countries here.

Thanks a lot for your advise. We are travelling to Austria and Italy

As far as I know it's not potable on trains. Bring bottled water for any train trips.

These are the sort of signs you'll find in places where the water isn't suitable...

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/126961104

.... with not all of them necessarily being very legible:

http://www.pbase.com/isolaverde/image/137472497

Peter

Water in Italy is potable and has been since long before America was discovered. Europe is very civilized and not a 3rd world destination.

I've had tap water all over Europe including Austria and Italy with no problems at all. Enjoy your trip.

In Rome (and also well marked in other cities and towns) you can fill up your water bottle from outdoor taps all over the city. It is particularly helplful when it is hot outside!

I would not give it a second thought. Tap water is drinkable there. As someone else said, Europe is not third world!

It is perfectly potable, but you may or may not like the taste, depending on the minerals dissolved in it. I don't care for the taste of water in Florence, but it is delicious in Verona and in Rome. There are drinking water spigots/taps right in the Trevi Fountain (on the bottom right as you face it) and that water is absolutely delicious.

It is similar to the situation in the US, where many of us find water is some parts of Florida to be horrible because of dissolved sulfur. But other people go to spas here and abroad to drink sulfur water. Go figure.

The water is perfectly safe. However, if you have a very sensitive digestive system and the minerals in the water are different from what you are used to - it can still be upsetting. (I've never had a problem in more than a dozen trips - although we do always drink bottled water - since we like fizzy and prefer ice cold.

As with any other place water tastes differ. In NYC the water is very soft - very few minerals and has - to me - no taste. When I visited a client in Cincy not only couldn;t I drink the water (very hard, lots of minerals) I couldn;t even drink tea, since it ruined the taste. Only strong coffee could cover the taste (more bottled water.)

Yes, the spigots and taps that were mentioned above have very cold, deliciously refreshing water--for free! Sometimes the spigots have interesting shapes, a lion's head, for example. They flow 24/7, are carefully regulated and completely safe.