Man, that’s hard. When I go there I try to follow etiquette closely, it’s their custom and I want to follow it, and the woman may have been a bit of a Karen.
However, tap water should be free. Anywhere. Maybe I just hiked a mile to get there. Maybe I’m just thirsty. 7 euro to drink water is simply extortion of your tourists. If that’s etiquette then it’s wrong.
If you haven’t been to Italy, there are quite a few cultural differences to be aware of. One of them is generally you don’t make demands, dinner is an experience that you are there to have and they want to give you their experience. So it’s at least worth calling out that it could be part of the experience they want you to have.
It is extorsion. When you live in a touristic place, I think at some point you just stop seeing people as people.
I know I can’t stand living in such a place anymore, personally. Not necessarily tourists themselves, but the absolute corruption that tourism brought to the place and its surroundings. So much greed.
In France it’s illegal to refuse serving tap water in restaurants, and it is always free.
You can also drink water on public taps anywhere, usually in public parks. For free.
I know it’s not quite as good in the rest of Europe, but I am not sure how you got this idea we are stingy with water. At least it’s potable!
That’s also the case in a lot of north american cities. If you’re pumping your own well out in the country, then it’s “free” (plus costs of running the pump and any well maintenance you need, also depending on availability in your water table), but if you’re in a town or city you have a matered water line that gets charged to cover both the clean water supply and waste management (at least that’s how it works in the Canadian town I live in, maybe other locations meter the waste side, too).
My water bill gets lumped with my power bill but they are itemized seperately with usage graphs for each of them.
If someone needed water, I’d give it to them without even thinking about the cost because my whole month of water use is only like $50 (and the metered bit is only $20 of that, though that does imply the lighter users are subsidizing the heavier ones, but that’s a seperate issue).
It’s literally less than a cent (euro or dollar) for a whole bottle of tap water.
Out of curiosity I checked the price I pay for tap water in Portugal and 1 m³ (1000 l) costs around €0.5, so a 2l bottle of tap water contains all of 0.01 euro cents worth of it.
Man, that’s hard. When I go there I try to follow etiquette closely, it’s their custom and I want to follow it, and the woman may have been a bit of a Karen.
However, tap water should be free. Anywhere. Maybe I just hiked a mile to get there. Maybe I’m just thirsty. 7 euro to drink water is simply extortion of your tourists. If that’s etiquette then it’s wrong.
She did offer to pay for it, but they still refused.
Fuck posh etiquettes.
Let’s not name her Karen - she sounds badass. Fighting in court for water everywhere sounds good to me.
If you haven’t been to Italy, there are quite a few cultural differences to be aware of. One of them is generally you don’t make demands, dinner is an experience that you are there to have and they want to give you their experience. So it’s at least worth calling out that it could be part of the experience they want you to have.
“a really affordable premium experience” as a not so wise man once said.
It is extorsion. When you live in a touristic place, I think at some point you just stop seeing people as people. I know I can’t stand living in such a place anymore, personally. Not necessarily tourists themselves, but the absolute corruption that tourism brought to the place and its surroundings. So much greed.
It depends on the tourist place. Europe is very stingy with water, but other tourist parts of the world aren’t.
In France it’s illegal to refuse serving tap water in restaurants, and it is always free.
You can also drink water on public taps anywhere, usually in public parks. For free.
I know it’s not quite as good in the rest of Europe, but I am not sure how you got this idea we are stingy with water. At least it’s potable!
France is the only country I’ve been to in Europe that does a good job providing water.
You do realise that tap water isn’t free in many European countries, right? Buildings have a meter and the owner or tenant gets a bill every month.
That’s also the case in a lot of north american cities. If you’re pumping your own well out in the country, then it’s “free” (plus costs of running the pump and any well maintenance you need, also depending on availability in your water table), but if you’re in a town or city you have a matered water line that gets charged to cover both the clean water supply and waste management (at least that’s how it works in the Canadian town I live in, maybe other locations meter the waste side, too).
My water bill gets lumped with my power bill but they are itemized seperately with usage graphs for each of them.
If someone needed water, I’d give it to them without even thinking about the cost because my whole month of water use is only like $50 (and the metered bit is only $20 of that, though that does imply the lighter users are subsidizing the heavier ones, but that’s a seperate issue).
It’s literally less than a cent (euro or dollar) for a whole bottle of tap water.
Out of curiosity I checked the price I pay for tap water in Portugal and 1 m³ (1000 l) costs around €0.5, so a 2l bottle of tap water contains all of 0.01 euro cents worth of it.