Five things you look up on day one

Five things decide your first day in Italy and none of them is on a tourist site: the tap water is drinkable, the sockets are 230³ V, the clock is UTC+1 or UTC+2, shops have no legal closing day, and the emergency number is 112⁸.

The tap water is fine, and the bottle is a habit

Between 2020 and 2022 Italian tap water met the microbiological and chemical health limits in 99.1%¹ of more than 2.5 million analyses, and the indicator parameters in 98.4%¹, across 18 regions and autonomous provinces covering over 90% of the population. No region fell under 95%, and Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Piedmont scored highest.

Residual failures are local and episodic. The same report notes that nearly one Italian in three does not trust the tap, which is a perception rather than a measurement.

Since 2023, article 17 of legislative decree 18 obliges regions to extend access to drinking water, with dispensers at least in airports, stations and beach clubs, and encourages restaurants to offer free tap water. Encourages, not obliges: in practice most restaurants sell bottled water, so asking will not always work.

Power: 230 V, and what we will not tell you

Italian domestic supply is 230³ V single phase, 400³ V three phase, with low voltage defined as anything under 1,000³ V. A device rated for 230³ V runs as it is.

The plug shape is the part every guide gets confident about. The Italian standard is a real technical norm, but we could not read it on a primary source, so this page names no letter and no pin count. Bring a universal adapter and you are covered either way.

The clock, and the two Sundays that move it

Italy runs on Central European Time, UTC+1, shared with 17 EU member states, and switches to Central European Summer Time, UTC+2, in the warm half of the year. The change happens at 01:00 UTC on the last Sunday of March and the last Sunday of October, under directive 2000/84/EC.

In practice that means March 29 to October 25 in 2026, and March 28 to October 31 in 2027. The European Commission proposed abolishing the switch in September 2018 and the Parliament agreed in 2019, but the Council never settled on a position, so the rule still stands. The time zone page explains how to read a 24 hour Italian sign.

Opening hours: no national rule since 2012

Since January 1, 2012, article 31 of decree law 201⁷/2011 has removed all legal limits on retail and food service opening hours, including any obligation to close on Sundays and public holidays. The only surviving duty is to display the hours you keep on a visible sign.

So a closed shop on a Monday morning is a business decision, not a law, and it varies by town, by season and by trade. August is its own case, covered on the August page.

112, and what happens after you dial

112⁸ is the single European emergency number in Italy: one response center answers, asks where you are, what has happened and your name, then routes the call to police, carabinieri, fire brigade, coast guard or ambulance. The call is free from any phone, including one with no SIM, no credit or a locked screen.

As of September 2026 the system is live in 18 of the 20 regions, with Campania listed as next and Veneto in progress. Two non voice channels exist: the 112⁸ Sordi service for deaf callers and the free Where ARE U app, which sends your GPS position and flags that you cannot speak. More on the emergency numbers page.

Coperto and tips, since they arrive with the bill

No national law governs the coperto: in Lazio, article 16 of regional law 21 of 2006 bans charging for it while still allowing a clearly stated service component. Whether other regions do the same has not been checked here, and everywhere the rule is that price components must be published before you order.

Tipping is voluntary in law, defined as a gift from the customer and taxed as employment income for the worker under the 2022 budget law. There is no legal service charge and no official average, so anyone quoting a correct percentage for Italy is guessing.

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