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
San Pellegrino is my favourite bottled water. I order a pack of the glass bottled ones in nearly every month’s grocery shopping, when it’s on sale. And I am not usually a fan of sparkling water, but this one always hits the spot. I can’t stand Perrier, for example. Can barely manage a sip before I put it down, so I never buy it. And if the supermarket substitutes it despite my checking “No substitutions”, I send it right back. But San Pellegrino? I’ll drink an entire bottle at one go, whether it’s cold or not.
I remember when I was a child that restaurants in a certain country were obligated to provide plain water to customers instead of charging outrageous sums for bottled water, so I thought that this was standard the world over, but I guess not. Indeed, there are magazines back in the day which used to tell readers that they *could* do this, because it was their right, so I guess that’s where this customer was coming from. But to sue for distress? I’d just leave and never visit that restaurant again if I weren’t happy with the service, and tell everyone I knew to do the same. 😀
Totally disagree with this take. Sending a bus boy running has hard costs. Fancy restaurants are not the Olive Garden. It’s a different experience with different expectations and obligations. You want free bread and water, head to the OG (or jail!)
That’s fair, although nice restaurants in the US typically bring water the minute you sit down so we tend to think that’s just a standard part of the job.