Is it safe to drink tap water?
We advise our guests not to drink the tap water. We always provide bottled water in the room and in the fridge. You will not immediately get sick if you do drink the tap water. It is perfectly safe to use for cooking and brushing your teeth.
Pozzo
Here in the countryside, there are no water pipes in the streets. All the houses you see in this region are not connected to a water network; only the city has a centralized water system. Each house here has its own water storage tank (cisterna). You often see trucks driving around, delivering water to fill these tanks.
We do not pay for the water in Puglia—it’s free—but we do pay for its transport. At Villa Gufo, we have our own pozzo (water well). We extract water from a depth of 350 meters (1,150 feet) using a powerful pump. It took two weeks of drilling to reach the source. The water from this deep source is exceptionally pure and drinkable.
A pipe system runs from the garden to the villa, supplying water to both the water tank and, if necessary, the swimming pool.
Water Tank (Cisterna)
On the first floor, in the living area, there is a hatch under the dining table (beneath the carpet) that provides access to our cisterna (water tank). This tank has a capacity of 30,000 liters—so you could say there’s an “extra swimming pool” hidden inside Villa Gufo!
When you walk up the outdoor stairs, you’ll find the tank built into the wall on the left. The pure water from the well flows into the tank, where it remains for a few days.
Because the water sits in the tank for a while, we recommend not drinking it directly from the tap. The water is in continuous use and automatically refilled. When you turn on the tap, the pump in the tank pushes the water through the pipes to the villa.
