People, particularly travelers to foreign destinations, however, are skeptical of drinking the local water, and thus shell out Euros for bottled water or stop at the nearest watering hole for a cold beer.

Earlier this year, the Catholic fathers in Venice asked the faithful to give up bottled water for Lent and “revive a sense of responsibility for the safeguarding of creation.” That may have fallen on more than a few deaf ears, as the Earth Policy Institute out of Washington D.C. identifies Italians as the greatest consumers of bottled water?EUR??,,????'??+about 54 gallons per person in 2006.

The Venice city council took the church?EUR??,,????'???s initiative a step further. The city?EUR??,,????'???s 18 million annual tourists and its fellow citizens generate mountains of water bottles. On June 5, in honor of U.N. World Environment Day, Venice began distributing ?EUR??,,????'??water kits?EUR??,,????'?? to the throngs in Piazzale Roma, its land transportation hub. The kit is an empty water bottle and a map showing the locations of the city?EUR??,,????'???s 122 water fountains. The bottles are labeled with the chemical analysis of the city water, described as “super-safe.” The bottles also come with a written message: ?EUR??,,????'??Don’t throw me away; reuse me.?EUR??,,????'??

Across the channel, London Mayor Boris Johnson is talking about a ?EUR??,,????'??new era of public (drinking) fountains.” He has a special advisor investigating the cost of placing fountains in parks and public spaces across London to discourage all that plastic (bottled water) being toted about. He points to the unnecessary litter and the generally wastefulness of producing all those plastic bottles.

State side, Elizabeth Royte, author of Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It, recently wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times that commented: ?EUR??,,????'??An entire generation of Americans has grown up thinking public faucets equal filth, and the only water fit to drink comes in plastic, factory sealed.?EUR??,,????'??

It?EUR??,,????'???s not just the Europeans telling their citizens it?EUR??,,????'???s okay to drink city water. New York City put on a $700,000 PR campaign last summer to tell its denizens the tap water was good and inexpensive. The problem is, however, that city dwellers out and about in NYC may be hard pressed to find a public drinking fountain.