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<DIV>In a message dated 03/24/04 05:15:27 AM Eastern Standard Time, claudietta67aHOTMAIL.COM writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT face=Arial>Some Italian friends of mine biked the Camino francès two years ago.<BR>They warned me not to drink water from fountains on the road. They did it<BR>and were sick for some days, with also slight fever.<BR>I don't know exactly which kind of fountain they took water from, but just<BR>to be sure, I avoided public fountains and always bought bottles of water.</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0080c0>We had a long debate about this subject a couple of years ago. I believe that the consensus was that it is safe to drink from the public fountains except those that are clearly marked not to drink from and my recollection is that they even had a skull and crossbones as a warning. Most of the pilgrims I encountered drank from public fountains all of the time with no adverse affects. In my opinion, bottled water in a plastic bottle that is on a shelf for an unknown period of time can be harboring bacterial growth more likely than running fresh water. After all, from historical times, people in villages have been drinking this water. I think that there are better uses for money than buying water. Further, what convinces you or your Italian friends that it was the water that made them ill? It reminds me of people who think that drafts give them colds. Howard Mendes, NYC</FONT></STRONG></DIV></BODY></HTML>