Italy's love for mineral water is overflowing, says a new book that seeks to guide consumers around the maze of spring-water products on the national market.
Italians are drinking more mineral water than ever and demand is growing, according to Acque Minerali e di Sorgente Italia Annuario 2005/2006 (Spring and Mineral Waters Italy 2005/2006).
It claims the average Italian guzzles 178 litres of mineral water a year, which works out at half a litre a day.
The Bel Paese is also Europe's biggest producer of mineral water, accounting for 28% of European Union output.
Some 11 billion litres of the stuff are bottled every 12 months - compared to six billion back in 1990 - by 150 companies marketing 252 different brands. Experts say Italy's variety of geographic and geological features enables it to produce an enviable range of waters with different flavours, aromas and healthy properties.
Italy hosts over 700 natural springs, 265 of which are used to produce bottled water.
In recent years there has been a flurry of publications attesting to the healthy qualities of famous spas such as Fiuggi, Chianciano and Salsomaggiore, whose medicinal qualities have been known since ancient times.
A national water-tasters' association has even been set up with similar standards to those used for recognised wine-tasting bodies.
Some Italian restaurants go as far as offering diners a 'mineral water list' along with the traditional wine list.
Italy's mineral water producers employ around 7,500 people and some 32,500 more work in the related distribution, machinery and packaging businesses. Not everyone, however, is happy about the national love
affair with mineral water.
Some are critical of the bottled-water industry and say it deliberately plays on the public's unjustified concerns about tap water quality to make massive profits, while covering up its own problems.
In his book I Predoni dell'Acqua (The Water Pirates), journalist Giuseppe Altamore argues that a compliant media, which benefits from the industry's advertising spending, encourages Italians to buy mineral water rather than drinking perfectly safe tap water.
Altamore says this is why the average family forks out around 260 euros a year for something they can get virtually for free from a tap. What's more, the journalist claims that Italy's bottled water often fails the safety checks tap water has to pass to be distributed for human consumption.
"Duped and deceived, we continue to buy water that, according to the law, may not be drinkable, in the sense that it does not correspond to the rules the water boards must respect," the book reads.
However, there may be a simpler reason why Italians prefer mineral water.
According to a 2004 survey by the association of water purifier manufacturers, Aqua Italia, over a third of Italians just don't like the taste of their tap water.
