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

Source: BBC News [UK State Media]

“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.” (05/27/26)

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g4yd8q0j7o