A group of vacationers headed into a quaint bar in Ostuni, a small town in southern Italy, for some drinks and snacks, but when the bill arrived, it wasn’t just the cocktails and appetizers they were paying for. The receipt showed that they were charged $23 for appetizers, $6 for peach juice, $11.50 for a non-alcoholic cocktail, and $18 for two alcoholic cocktails. What caught their eye was an extra $9 for background music. The bar had a DJ playing background tracks, but the customers said they had no idea they would be charged for it. As people on social media began sharing their own stories of being charged for ridiculous services, one user posted that he had been charged 60¢ for a grind of pepper when he ordered a pizza in Bari. “So, from now on I’ll bring my own pepper and save the extra charge,” he wrote. It appears that Italy is not the only country where surcharges have left people in disbelief. One social media user recounted that when she vacationed in Ibiza, she was charged $14 just for hanging her handbag on a table hook. “The waitress kindly offered to let us hang our handbags on a small hook at the table, but we initially declined. When the waitress insisted, we finally gave her the bags. The surprise came when we saw the bill.”
