Apparently drinking among young people in Rome has become a problem, so there's a new minimum drinking age in effect now, although it's still younger than any minimum in the United States that I'm aware of.

http://tinyurl.com/lx7wgd

The times, they are a-changin'!

BC

Whoops, should read "Minimum Drinking Age in Milan" which I find even more surprising, actually!

BC

16 brings it up to the usual minimum age for beer/wine consumption in Central and Southern Europe. Eastern and Northern Europe usually set the limit at 18.

Hello bookchick, various Italian friends in Italy have expressed their disgust regarding some young people getting drunk. It has sadly become quite a problem. I rather doubt the new law will make much of a difference although I sure hope it does.

16 is the age in the Netherlands for buying beer and wine. 18 for spirits. There is a campaign afoot to raise the age for beer and wine to 18, but I doubt it will happen. There is no minimum age for actually drinking alcohol at home or at friends, just for buying it.

I remember asking this question years ago in Mexico; referring to my Son. The bartender said, "If he is tall enough to reach up and put the money on the bar, I will of course serve him, Senor."

Drinking age in europe depends very much on the circumstances. We visited Paris with our stepdaughters (14 and 17) and when we went out to dinner they were served the wine we bought for the table - no questions asked - it was simply poured for them.

I remember that when I was a teen, I could go to a bar/coffee and order an Aperitif and never had any problems..However, back then the young people even at parties ,were moderate drinkers.

My son (11 yrs) was poured wine at wine tastings in Tuscany. We were told that in Italy there is no age limit for drinking, which was a shock for us Aussies as our minimum is 18 yrs!!

"In Milan, 34 percent of 11-year-olds have had problems with alcohol" - that seems a little excessive, no? (From the article.)

I am just wondering what they consider problems. I'm not from the camp of "Italians never get drunk" but this just seems a little, well, over the top.

16 has been the minimum drinking age for awhile I believe, but perhaps not enforced.

It seems to me that cigarettes pose more of a risk to the youth of Europe. A couple glasses of wine a day won't kill anyone.

I do not know the legal situation in Rome and Milan, but in Europe drinking laws usually apply only to minors who are alone.

If minors are accompanied by their parents, they can drink whatever they want, regardless of age. The reason is that parents have a constitutional right to decide what is good or not for their children. This right can only be constrained, if they abuse it to an extend that the child is severely harmed. This is certainly not the case if an 11-year-old sips a glass of wine at a tasting.

16-yr old DD was poured wine wherever we went in Italy unless she told the waiter that she did not want any.

OMG that's not the Italy I know and love! Still, I doubt anyone will pay mind

It seems to me that cigarettes pose more of a risk to the youth of Europe. A couple glasses of wine a day won't kill anyone.

You are very naive.

A couple of glasses of wine will kill someone if they get behind the wheel of a car and smash it into a tree.

I was born in Europe and I AM SICK TO DEATH of Europeans claiming that their young people don't have drinking or drug problems.

I have travelled all over the world and I have seen many young people shit-faced drunk, plopped on the cobblestones in Prague, Rome, Florence, Paris, Lisbon, London, Rhodes, Edinburgh (I saw a 12-year-old drinking a bottle of Scotch on a public bus), and Buenos Aires. I have seen teenagers shooting heroin in public parks in Germany and Switzerland.

My friend lived in Amsterdam for one year--year abroad from Dartmouth. He told stories about all the Dutch who get so stoned and drunk that they ride their bicycles into the canals.

We are tired of the MYTHS of the Great Europe.

Thin

on our recent hols in austria we were lucky enough to stay in a village near Vienna which was having a wine festival. you could drink from 12 noon to 12 midnight.

we did not see one single person the worse for drink.

Thin, I agree with you... I have seen a lot of drunk/drugged teenagers (and adults) in Europe too - not too many 11 year olds though and I thought that number of 11 year olds who had problems to be rather high in that article. 34%?

I just wonder where they got that information - maybe some questionaire handed out that had some question like "ever had more than two glasses of wine" and saying yes means, you have had or have a problem. What kid hasn't dipped into the punch bowl at a wedding?

Just commenting on the quoted statistic... though I still don't think 2 glasses of wine would be too dangerous unless they were really big glasses and/or high alcohol wines. Or unless one was 11 or a real lightweight. However if a teenager were to have a glass wine with their dinner, I don't think that is dangerous, assuming they aren't driving anywhere.

It's ridiculous to talk about "Europe" in monolithic terms. The UK and Northern Europe have always been notorious for high rates of alcoholism- far more so than countries like Italy.

They sell beer at McDonalds in Rome. I didn't see any IDs being checked.

Annhig said "we did not see one single person the worse for drink."
Same goes for our time in Venice. In nine weeks, I think we saw only one drunk man, and he was most polite and apologetic once we explained in broken Italian that we were from Aus.
I don't see any tolerance for public drunkenness in Italy. Wish it was like that in Melbourne!

Annhig said "we did not see one single person the worse for drink."
Same goes for our time in Venice.

That's because Venice is for tourists. Most Venetians live on the mainland, in Maestra.

Thin