Italy has a much stricter alcohol-serving-to-minors law compared to other countries in Europe.
While German drinking laws allow 14-year-olds to have a beer with a guardian in Germany, Italy criminalizes it.
Drinking Age Limit
The law in Italy is plain and simple, the drinking age limit is 18 years.
That means, if you are 18 or your child is 18, you/they don't get to order or purchase any alcoholic beverage in a public commercial establishment or shop.
This includes all soft drinks, such as beer and wine, as well as hard beverages (distilled) including vodka, rum, Schnapps.
Minors, below the age of 18, do not get criminalized whether they purchase illegally alcohol in a bar or in a grocery store.
On the other hand, the one who's getting in trouble is the seller. If a bar sells you an Aperol Spritz, and you are 16 years old, it is the bar owner who will have to pay a juicy fine.
It doesn't matter if the minor is sitting in an osteria or trattoria in Rome or a Bacaro in Venice.
Selling alcohol to 14-year-olds in Italy can even result in a 1-year prison sentence.
This law is also valid in the South Tyrol and Trentino provinces in Northern Italy!
In Italy, and other European countries, you are also counted as an adult at 18 years.
Essential, the strict zero-minor-alcohol-consume-laws were implemented in 2012 after a surge of drunk minor cases in Italy and Europe (Thanks to the Alcopop misuse of the 2000s).
Tips
Restaurants, shop cashiers or any other public commercial establishment selling alcohol can and will ask you for an ID to confirm your age, if you want to purchase a drink.
They diligently do it because fines can be as high as €2000 and if a shop manager or bar owner is caught a second time, fines can range between €1000, and €250000 and a 3-month prison time.
Always keep your ID with you when traveling in Italy, and in Europe in general. You can be asked anytime by local police to show your ID in a public square, at a train station or anywhere else.
Your ID can be your passport or your government issued ID card. Your driving license is not an ID and won't be accepted by the police in Europe as an ID!
I recommend getting an ID card done, if you haven't one already, before your trip to Italy because it's easier to carry around an ID card in your wallet than a much larger Passport in your pocket or handbag.
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