An angry customer slammed a café for charging him €43 for two cups of coffee and two additional bottles of water.
62-year-old Juan Carlos Bustamante from Santiago, Chile, was surprised to see the bill at Caffe Lavena in St. Mark’s Square, Venice. He was charged €11.50 each for caffe espresso and €10 each for two 0.25L bottles of water.
The frustrated customer shared the receipt on Facebook and wrote: “I don’t know what you think but 43 euros for two coffees and two bottles of water!”
His post quickly gone viral in Italy, with many commenters saying the prices are a kind of ‘robbery.’
But a spokesman for the Caffe Lavena said that customers who sit outside on St. Mark’s Square pay a premium.
He said: “People get annoyed when the bill arrives because they do not listen when we hand them the menu even though it states clearly enough that prices are higher to sit outside. They just wave us away and if we insist they get irritated.
If they just want a coffee they can have it at the bar for 1.25 EUR. If they want to sit outside and enjoy the music of the orchestra, look at the bell tower and the Basilica of St Mark’s, then they are paying for an entirely different experience.”
And this isn’t the first time tourists felt ripped off and furious in Italy.
A British family also complained about being charged 15.11 euros for each ice cream in Rome. When the tourists complained, they were told that the price would have been double if they had eaten their dessert at a table instead of standing up.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that tourists should also pay for the ‘experience’ with such unbelievable prices? Let us know in the comments section below!