Tap Water
 

We will be in Tuscany in June for 10 days. Is is advisable to drink the tap water or should we stick to bottled water.

It's certainly safe.

And they have electricity and EVERYTHING:)

Bring your own water for drinking & washing and flushing toilets

Water? With all that great wine all around you??

I don't think this is such a stupid question. Although the tap water is "safe" to drink the mineral content in it may upset some people. I have to say I personally prefer to drink bottled water whilst in Italy

i am glad the londonengland reconfirmed this is not such a stupid question.

i find it totally normal someone ask that if they are going somewhere they never have before.

however, if it has rained heavily, i wouldn't drink the tap water ANYwhere for many days.

what about the water in spain?
every visitor i have had has asked me if it is safe to drink the tap water here.

i tell them that I do, but who knows how their system will react. and i don't consider it a stupid question.

On a rare occasion there have been big problems in someplants and they have even recommended on T.V NOT to drink the water without boiling it, which can happen anywhere.

this type of ridicule is what keeps our children in school afraid to raise their hand lest their colleagues think they are dumb.

such is life.

Tap water is fine in Italy. You will see many fountains where you can refill your water bottles. Others will have signs saying acqua non potabile. These are not safe.

I think it's far more likely drinking wine will upset your stomach, if you aren't used to it.

I'm always curious how those people who say that they drank the tap water and it upset their system knew it was caused by the tap water. Are these people saying they ate the exact same foods, did the same daily routine, and breathed the same air that they do everyday at home?

They don't "know" (which you already "know") but what can you do?

Sometimes the level of coliform bacteria in "foreign" drinking water, even though acceptable from a local public health standpoint, can cause temporary gut "issues" since it provides a change in what your body is used to dealing with. Filtered, bottled water is often an alternative which lessens the possibility.

But how does londonengland know that the mineral content of a particular bottled water won't upset some people?

And why is lincasanova worried about heavy rainfall? It's not as if it's collected off a roof. Certainly in UK water can come from many miles away, a lot is ground water and, in any case, is likely to have been in the system for some time.

wasleys: depending on the sewer system, heavy rainfall can cause raw sewage to overflow into the system. Basically, you're drinking what you've already peed out. Not good. Though quite uncommon in any city with an at all modern sewage system (although a similar thing happens in DC; it doesn't go into the drinking water, but does go straight into the river).

I always drink the tap water unless I don't like the taste. Considering all the crap they put in our water in Florida, I find Italian tap water refreshing, especially the stuff that comes from Roman street fountains.
Advisable? Dehydration sucks!

Don't drink tap water in Russia. They even had a sign that said, don't brush your teeth with this water.

grsing,

Obviously surface water can be contaminated by raw sewage at times even in the best regulated world, but that is precisely why we have water treatment systems to enure the supply is potable. There are some places where sewage and water treatment both leave much to be desired, but this is not the case in the area under discussion and lincasanova was talking about not drinking after heavy rain 'ANYwhere', which seems quite illogical. However it's not the pee that worries me (it's pretty sterile) it's the solid bits. And just think what the ducks probably do in the reservoirs.:-o

I don't know much about the bottled water industry but I have heard that some of its products are not subject to such stringent controls as tap water and may have a higher bacteria count. And some is just bottled tap water any way. So perhaps the question should really be 'which bottles is it advisable to drink?'.;-)

Yeah, ANYwhere is definitely overreacting. If you couldn't drink tap water after rain, parts of the world just wouldn't have tap water (England & the Pacific NW come to mind). In Europe, if something extraordinary happens & the tap water becomes unsafe, I'm pretty sure that there would be no shortage of notice about it (the only place I've run into in Western Europe with unsafe tap water was a villa in Sardinia, but there were extremely clear signs that left no room for doubt).

yes..i shouldn't have said "anywhere".
my mind was in a local mode.. and basically referring to "anywhere over HERE" .. since tuscany was brought up..

"any remote area you are unfamiliar with" is what my intention was.

I was trying to be lighthearted to begin with but some of these responses are ludicrous.

The EU is not the developing world, you know?

Hi stanjudy, most Italians order bottle water when at a restaurant or a cafe. Right after they all put their cells phone on the table (I am not joking!).

I have always drank the tap water in Italy and I have never had a problem. I have never had a problem with the bottled water either.

But everyone's system is different. If you are going to be renting an apartment or a villa and will consequently have a refrigerator you might enjoy have having some chilled bottled water for any hot days.

As far as the tap water I would try it if you are concerned..maybe just one glass at first and see how it agrees with you. Best wishes.

>>>>
The EU is not the developing world, you know?
>>>>

that means nothing...there are plenty of places in the developed world where it is not advisable to drink tap water.

sheila: if you're referring to me at all, well, DC is the capital of the only superpower and it dumps it's sh!t right in the river when it rains, so who knows what exactly to expect?

Superpower isn't linked to civilization, but to power. Have you ever tried DRANO, it the real super power http://www.drano.com/
It's extremely efficient, you should use it every day, no matter how high the tide rises. ;-)

I'm not saying it is, just that you would assume that DC is a reasonably developed city, being the capital of the US. And please don't use drano, I have to sail in that river, and it's bad enough knowing I'm sailing in diluted sewage.

>>>I'm always curious how those people who say that they drank the tap water and it upset their system knew it was caused by the tap water.<<<

To answer your question: after repeated trips one may notice that one’s “guts” react oddly, only after having spent time in a particular country, but not others. For example, it finally dawned on me that certain …uh… problems occurred in France, but not in any other countries. I have a very sturdy constitution so these problems are not common, but after I quit glugging down lots of tap water in France (a little for brushing teeth, etc. was okay) “the problem’ vanished. Other countries’ water has been fine… who knows why?

I don’t think this has anything to do with how "sanitary" the water is, it’s just that everyone’s system reacts differently.

My suggestion is to drink bottled water where the locals do even though it might be an unnecessary tradition left over from earlier times. If a lot of chlorine is left in the water after treatment, its odour can be off-putting and it ruins the flavour of tea. Another thing is that gaseous bottled water is very refreshing and seems to help the digestion (if you need assistance in that direction). My water comes from a partly open spring so, although we cook with it, we tend to drink wine and bottled water. It's also saturated with calcium so removing that with an ion exchanger of course leaves salty taste behind. Many country places in Tuscany rely on untreated spring water so I would say that for drinking you can't go wrong with wine and bottled water.

"that means nothing...there are plenty of places in the developed world where it is not advisable to drink tap water."
Sure but the original question wasn't about Los Angeles.

All tap water has "little beasties" in it. Most are harmless, but the exact variety of "beasties" varies from area to area--even within the same country. Some people's systems will react poorly to water they aren't used to; other people won't notice a thing.

Okay, but one more question - how do I order tap water in a restaurant? Agua naturale? As opposed to Agua minerale?

Thanks, Alice

>All tap water has "little beasties"
Definitively not "all".
http://www.swm.de/english/english_mwasser.htm
http://www.swm.de/privatkunden/pdf/trinkwasserwerte.pdf

>>>>
Definitively not "all".
>>>>

why do they sell a purification and filtration system (for home installation) on that very site?

It adds CO2.

Alice9. Admittedly it has been three or so years since we have been in Italy (for the second time) but we could not figure out how to order tap water in any of the restaurants. The only choices were with or without gas and it was always bottled.
So I am curious also.

logos: that site doesn't mention anything about the presence or lack of bacteria (what I assume was referred to as "little beasties"). If anyone has managed to create an entire public water system that is sterile, I'd be amazingly impressed, but I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened. Not that all bacteria are harmful, the vast majority aren't, just that they're pretty much everywhere.

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It adds CO2.
>>>>

and it filters. munich's water is good but it's not perfect-nobody's it. despite germany's attempts at creating a "perfect" society, not all is perfect.

> presence or lack of bacteria
It's close to the end of the text
http://www.swm.de/privatkunden/pdf/trinkwasserwerte.pdf

>not all is perfect.
Not all, but Munich water is :-)!

"Because of the M-Wasserbar’s ingenious filtering and purification system you always receive pure, axenic drinking water to safely still your thirst. "

I earn my living as a microbiologist. I would not be able to believe that any tap water is 100% pure. No matter what your proceedures and methods to ensure no bacteria in water at source, there will always be some that get into the distribution system before it reaches the taps.

how about eating yoghurt with active cultures? Won't the good bacteria kill off the bad ones? Seems to work for me.

They checked for 3 types of bacteria in that test (albeit, 3 of the most important for water safety). There are millions of types of bacteria, and no way to test for them all, and no point, since they're mostly harmless. It's pretty much physically impossible to have a water system without bacteria in anything but a closed laboratory environment.