One element I didn’t dive further into last week during our discussion of the $52.95 pasta & water meal, was the San Pellegrino of it all. Most of us were in agreement that although $52.95 was awfully steep for a bowl of pasta and bottle of sparkling water, there were several mitigating factors that undercut the diner’s incredulity: she was in Las Vegas, she was eating at an Eataly, and she chose the second most expensive pasta dish on the menu. What I failed to mention last week was my firm belief that any amount of money is too much to pay for San Pellegrino sparkling water. There, I said it! San Pellegrino has a nerve calling their beverage “sparkling,” because it’s got to be one of the weakest fizzy waters I’ve ever imbibed — and as my father’s daughter, a self-appointed Seltzer Scientist, I’ve tried ‘em all.
But you had more measured responses in the comments, noting that she could have paid less for an SP bottle at a drug store, or, the most obvious solution, asked for free tap water. Which brings us to this breaking news: an Italian court just ruled that restaurants have the right to refuse patrons free water. Here are the facts of the case:
Italy’s highest court has ruled a five-star Dolomites hotel was acting lawfully when it refused to provide tap water to a tourist.
The woman from Rome unsuccessfully argued that “water is a natural resource and a universal human right” after a waiter only offered her €7 (£6) bottled mineral water at the restaurant of the five-star Hotel Sassongher in Corvara during the 2019 ski season.
The Italian Supreme Court denied her request for €2,700 to compensate for her emotional distress and economic damage, Italian media reports.
Silvio Belardi, the lawyer representing the hotel, told the Corriere Alto Adige newspaper that the court held that “there is no obligation to supply tap water”.
The lawyer later told the BBC the case had been rejected first by a court in Rome, then by an appeals court and now the Court of Cassation, where the judges ruled in the hotel’s favour.
The woman had claimed her consumer rights were violated when staff refused her request for tap water, saying it was a key part of the hotel’s service and likened it to “finding a bed with sheets” and “soap in the bathroom”.
However, Silvio Belardi said he had his colleagues had argued [sic] that “company policy is, like in many high-end establishments, to serve only bottled water at the table — which is sealed”.
“The woman claimed she had suffered damage, including financial and moral harm. This was rejected for lack of evidence.”
Supreme Court judges dismissed her claim, ruling that Italian laws and regulations did not mandate venues to provide tap water to guests and that the decision to serve it was up to individual venues.
“We also argued that if a person wanted running water, they could easily get that in the hotel — just not at the restaurant,” Belardi said.
Oh Italy, I expect so much more from you. Like… water! Not that I’m cosigning this defendant’s claims of “emotional distress and economic damage” to the tune of €2,700. Taking it that far is a little delulu. Nor do I entirely fault the Italian Supreme Court; they have to follow the law, and if there are no laws on the books requiring restaurants provide free tap water, then the judges must rule accordingly. I guess I just find it disheartening that A) a restaurant (that was part of a hotel, remember) would refuse tap water to a paying guest, and that B) a law has to be written to compel certain restaurants to do so. The only instance I can think of where restaurants were not automatically providing free water, was back when I was living in California and we were in a drought. But even then, most restaurants had cards on the table letting us know that water would be served upon request.
And regarding the restaurant being connected to the hotel, I found this part of the lawyer’s reasoning more than a bit wonky: “We also argued that if a person wanted running water, they could easily get that in the hotel — just not at the restaurant.” But the restaurant and the hotel are partners! They stand as a unified resort, in the — gulp — HOSPITALITY business. Instead of telling a paying customer to go back to the hotel for free tap water, here’s a crazy idea: send a waiter or bus boy to the hotel to bring back the water! This shouldn’t be so hard. Would I have sued over bottled vs. tap water? No. But this woman isn’t wrong, either, no matter how dramatic the lawsuit language sounds.
Photos credit: Виктор Соломоник, Aylin Elif Gökçe and Jude Mitchell-Hedges on Pexels
