Hotel that refused to give tourist tap water acted lawfully, Italian court rules

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 her for 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 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.

Licensed venues across England and Wales are legally required to serve free drinking water upon request.

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