In Italy, some of the best things happen senza pensieri—without overthinking them.
Water is one of them—you fill your bottle and move on.
According to the Italian National Institute of Health, drinking water is tested regularly across the country, with over 99 percent of samples meeting safety standards. From big cities to small villages, the water that flows from taps and public drinking fountains is safe to drink.
You may not notice it at first. But a few days in, it hits you—you haven’t thought about water once.
Water, Woven into the Landscape
In Italy, water isn’t hidden behind systems or transactions. It’s out in the open.
You see it in village squares, where locals refill bottles on their way home. Along walking paths, you might hear it before you notice it—water running somewhere nearby, a simple tap set into a wall, a fountain tucked just off the trail. You come across it without really looking for it, and often exactly when you need it.
That relationship with water goes back a long way. The ancient Romans built aqueducts to carry it across cities and landscapes—many of them still standing and some still functioning today—and the idea that water should be public, free and accessible has never really disappeared.
Over time, it becomes part of your rhythm. Walk, notice, stop, refill—and then continue.
What’s striking isn’t just the availability—it’s the setting.
Some fountains are purely decorative, like the 15th century Fonte Gaia in Siena’s Piazza del Campo, which you’ll see on many of our Tuscany Bike Tours. But many are functional, and fontane pubbliche, or public drinking fountains, seem to appear exactly where you’d want to pause anyway: a shady corner before a climb, a terrace overlooking the sea.
You stop for water—and stay a while, watching everything unfold around you. Then eventually, you move on.
The Role of Water on a Backroads Trip
On an active trip, water isn’t just a detail—it’s essential. It influences the pace of the day, how long you can stay out and how comfortable everything feels. And because of that, where you stop matters.
That’s why our staging areas and support stops are carefully thought through. They need to be well positioned along the route, safe to reach and easy to access without breaking the flow of the day. When possible, they’re also placed where it simply feels good to pause—a bit of shade, a nice view, enough space to take a breath and refill.
Sometimes, those stops turn into something more.
Maybe there’s music drifting from the support van, just enough to loosen the effort in your legs. Fresh local treats waiting on the table. A simple setup with a view that makes you linger longer than planned. Or just your travel companions there, cheering you in after a tough climb.
It’s still a break. Still a moment to reset. But it often becomes one of the moments you remember most.
A Quieter Shift in How We Carry Water
That same attention to detail extends beyond where you stop. It extends to what you carry with you along the way.
In that spirit, Backroads has partnered with mountainFLOW, a company working to reduce the outdoor industry’s reliance on petroleum-based materials. The bottles now used on all Biking and Multi-Adventure Trips are made primarily from sugarcane—about 95 percent—a renewable material that offers a lower-impact alternative to traditional plastics without changing how the bottle performs day to day.
It’s not something that changes the experience in an obvious way. But it’s part of a broader shift—small decisions that, taken together, make a difference without asking you to think about them. It’s just one piece of a wider approach to responsible travel that you can explore on our Planet page.
In Italy, senza pensieri isn’t just a saying—it’s something you feel.
It’s in the way the day flows without interruption. In the way small needs are taken care of before you even think about them.
Water is just one example.
But it’s a good one.
