Seriously! Gas in the Water?
 

Ok, last year when we traveled all over Italy, we discovered very early that we had to say when ordering water - "no gas"! Otherwise, the water tasted horrible.

This time we will just be in Rome & Venice. Do we need to say that in restaurants & stores there or is that not an issue in the big cities?

:O - I'm serious!

Julie

Unless you want more of that "naturally carbonated" mineral water then you definitely need to tell them "no gas" or "ancora acqua" (still water).

Unless you specifically ask for water with no gas, you'll be served carbonated water in big and small cities alike.

If you want still water you must request it as you found out last year.

Many people, myself included, very much enjoy a glass of San Pellegrino or other sparking mineral water with dinner - it runs about $1/bottle at Sams's club.

In most cities, when you order water, they will bring you bottled water, in most cities, the water will be carbonated or fizzy or aqua con gas or gassato ..
Unless you specify that is usually what happens, even in the US..

I like sparkling/fizzy/mineral water so it rarely comes up .. Marling Menu Master makes a translator for Italy, you might want to get one. I have worn my French one out and I am not working on the Spanish one :)

that should have been I am now working on the Spanish one.

OMG I thought you were going to say there was gasoline in the water!

I've never heard someone ask for "ancora acqua". Maybe a native could correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it would be best to ask for "acqua naturale" or "sensa gas".

"ancora" means "still" or "yet". For example the sentence "ancora mangia" means "He/she/it is still eating." I've heard, "ancora un' altra" which means "one more" or literally, "yet one more"

I'm willing to bet there's not a waiter in all of Italy who doesn't know what is meant by "gas -- no gas".

Julie-you can say "gas" "no gas" of course-but the terms in Italian are:

"acqua frizzante" (carbonated) and, what you want: "acqua naturale" (natural, or still water)

Actually I stopped saying "acqua naturale" when I found that some water is naturally carbonated. Right on the bottle it would say "naturale" but have bubbles. I hated it. I also mistakenly bought some at a store that way.

Even back in the 1970's we ordered water saying "no gas"..and that is what we got. I don't like carbonated water either. BTW, a friend in Milan in the 1970's told us to say "no gas"..so I think that is the way to communicate what you want in the way of water. It has always worked for me regardless of where I am in Italy.

Yes, and actually I am usually asked by the waiter even before I have a chance to order water at all "Gas or no gas?"

I have always said, senza gas.

Be aware though that still water in a bottle can be substituted by plain tap water, they can't do that do the carbonated water. Be sure you watch them uncap it or let you do it, experience has taught me.

Yes, "gas" "no gas" are words that Italian, Spanish and even French waiters use with the tourists, because it is easy to understand-but it isn't correct terminology, and I don't hear Italians using it, nor have waiters used it with me when they ask me which kind of water I want-but I don't order in English.

If you go and buy bottled water in Italian shops or supermarkets, the bottles will not have the words "gas" or "no gas" anywhere on them. It's either "frizzante" or "naturale" and there are different colored labels to denote the difference.

I just drink tap water (in addition to wine) in restaurants in Italy. Acqua municipale.

Interesting Girlspytravel as so many of my Italian friends in Italy DO say NO GAS. And sensa means without which is also correct as SeaUrchin uses. But to say GST that Italians do NOT say no gas..well I will have to tell my friends in Italy, LOL.

The term I've encountered is non frizzante.

Since it was brought up to watch the waiter uncap the bottle...

In Venice I asked for tap water in a restaurant and was told we had to buy bottled water. The waiter made a big show of uncapping the bottle and my son and I drank the entire bottle during dinner. At the end of dinner, I happened to pick up the cap and noticed that there was stuff growing in it! :o How gross is that?!

I guess I got my tap water after all!

kwren: Do you remember the name of that restaurant? It's certainly something to warn other tourists about.

How awful!

Hi J,

Whether it has gas or doesn't mineral water can still taste horrible.

Maybe you want plain tap water.

My menu translator calls it "aqua rubinetto".

((I))

I'm amazed at the warnings about making sure they uncap it in front of you. I actually PREFER tap water to bottled water. That's all I drink in France, but it is very hard to get in most Italian restaurants. Most seem to insist on some form of bottled water.

Hi Shuler! I'm sure I kept some sort of notes during that trip - I always do - but can't find them. I've looked several times in the past few years! Frustration!

The restaurant - a very nice one at that - was next to a canal...does that help? :))

"Ancora" means "still" as an adverb not an adjective. In English it would sound like "water still" or "water even now".
You can say "non frizzante" or "senza gaz" but the most normal phrase is "acqua naturale".

The American usage of the word "gas" to mean petroleum was always a bit confusing as in "I cook with gas".
It's even worse now that some cars nowadays actually run on gas rather than petrol.

Make sure you ask for water with no gas right from the get go. Once or twice in Rome we forgot and just ordered water. The waiter brought the carbonated kind and poured it; he was more than happy to bring regualr water, too, but we had to pay for the first bottle, since it was open and poured.

ew Kwren, so sorry that was a spoiler. I would have called the waiter over to find out what that was... ;)

I actually prefer acqua frizzante, and drink it normally here in NY (but not in restaurants where they charge you $5/small bottle!!!).

Another way to get your point across is to say "no bubbles."

But you will definitely need to say something if you're not asked, and most places I've been to have asked. They give me a surprised look when I say "Si! Con gas." :D

Julie, Yes you have to say it in Venice and Rome, same as the rest of Italy.

mcny - I don't think want to know! :-P

Wow, how surprised I was to find this was a topic that got so many wonderful responses. Last year we learned to say "no gas" & worked fine everywhere. But we were on a tour & did not eat in Rome on our own. So I was not sure if a city as big as Rome would need the "no gas" order. Glad I asked; now I know to continue saying that wherever I am while in Italy. We (hubby & adult son included) do not drink alcohol, including wine. Hubby & I only drink 1-2 soft drinks a day. So we have been ordering water since many decades ago - when people thought we were strange to drink water at a restaurant!

Scarlett, I wonder if I don't understand your post??? As I mentioned, we have ordered water in the U.S. (all over the U.S.) for decades & have never gotten anything but a glass with ice & water. I assume it is tap water. Have never (and I mean never) been served bottled water. Also have never been charged for as many glasses of water as we want.

Well, whether we get tap water or the bottled water we pay for - I'm not going to worry about that - as long as the tap water is high enough quality that it won't make us sick (hopefully nothing growing on the bottle cap!). We drink a lot of water & I drink a lot of water with my meals. So, all I want is some water that isn't the "gas" type!

Thanks folks for such a good discussion, Julie
p.s. we leave on Wednesday!!! Yeah!!

Julie,

Since you and your family enjoy water so much, I thought I'd share my 2 cents. What I usually do in Rome is buy a small bottle of water when I first get there and then use the fountains to refill the bottle as necessary. Hope you have a great trip.

Julie, tap water is fine to drink in Italy. It's just that in restaurants, they tend to serve bottled water. Not the ice and tapwater that you get everywhere in the US. And the bottled water is usually carbonated, fizzy, like San Pelegrino. If you want still water, any waiter will understand 'no gas'.
Have a wonderful time in Italy!

As a side note, I'm rather convinced that many people who never drink tap water anywhere end up with weaker immune systems than those of us who drink it everywhere. There's something to be said for imbibing low amounts of local "helpful" bacteria.

Neopatrick, I meant when you pay for a bottle of water and it has been substituted with tape water. I drink out of the drinking fountains in Italy but I dont want to pay for it. I also don't like the idea that the tap water could have been sitting for a while in the bottle, if I am going to drink tap I want it fresh.

Sometimes a waiter can make a big show of opening a bottle when it was open all the time.

In Paris this last trip I am sure one restaurant did this with a bottle of wine too.

LOL! Ancora acqua! That would certainly get you some funny looks in the restaurant. "No gas" is not something an Italian would say, but because restaurants are used to tourists saying it, it will get you what you want. If you want to sound more Italian, you can say acqua naturale or acqua non-gasata.

Mineral water comes in all sorts of flavors, depending on the mineral content of the spring it's taken from. If you're not used to it, it may taste weird to you with or without gas. There are even a few (such as Ferrarelle, which I can't stand the taste of) that are naturally bubbly.

Most Italians would not dream of asking for tap water in a restaurant, and many Italians don't like the flavor of tap water even at home, which is part of why some restaurants are reluctant to serve it. In a few mountain communities they are justifiably proud of their tasty local water and do serve that without being asked.

I don't dispute that a few people have probably been ripped off in buying mineral water, but personally I think life's too short to constantly worry about whether I'm being ripped off (though that is an authentically Italian attitude!). The phenomenon of restaurants deliberately ripping off tourists seems to be on the rise, which is sad - the sign of a third world country, really, which Italy seems intent on becoming...

best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

beginningwithi.com

D, one of the times I was with a local Italian who pushed the bottle back at the waiter when we found out it was tap water. I don't obsess with being ripped off but I don't like it either.

Well as I posted before Italian born and bred friends in Italy do say "no gas".

SeaUrchin I just had a long conversation with a friend in Italy a couple of weeks ago and she and her husband were getting quite disgusted with the quality of food being served in some of the restaurants..restaurants which use to be quite fabulous. She mentioned one in particular which I loved but evidently when they ate there a month ago even the fish wasn't fresh. They just returned from Tuscany so I will be interested in how they enjoyed their meals in out of the way restaurants.

As languge becomes more and more universal, I wonder if at this very minute on some European discussion board, there are French people insisting that no American would ever say "Bon Appetite" or Italians discussing how no American would ever say "Ciao" as they left a place.

Neo, LOL. Guess what. Some nights ago I was visiting with my friend whom I have known since HS. She is from Italy and all of her family is still there. She told me her darling aunt who is in her late 80's and lives in a little village in the region of Molise ended their last phone conversation by saying "bye bye". This dear lady has never spoken a word of English in her life. We think she probably picked up the "bye bye" from one of the children in the family. We couldn't stop laughing as it struck us as so unexpected.

I just wish that Americans would not say "bon appetite" and would say "bon appétit" instead if they have to say something. But actually the debate in France is why on earth do people say "bon appétit" anyway? Do people think that people sit down to have a meal with a bad appetite and require encouragement to force the food down? :)

On a PBS series a few years back featuring Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, at the end Julia Child would say "bon appétit" with her American accent and Jacques Pepin would say "happy cooking" in his French accent.

Ok, nothing to do with water, but the famous chefs above would speak a foreign phrase as their tagline.