A wine bar in Sicily has been slammed by a furious customer after they were charged an astonishing EUR 8 just to pop the cork on a bottle of bubbly.

The amazed punter had already splashed out EUR 16.99 (GBP 14.84) on the bottle of Berlucci Cuvee Imperiale Brut, a champagne-style Italian wine, at the venue.

But when staff added an extra EUR 8 (GBP 6.99) fee just for opening the sparkling wine, it cranked the total for the bottle up to EUR 24.99 (GBP 21.83), nearly half as much again.

A bill from the Retrobottega di Prezzemolo & Vitale wine shop and bar in Palermo, Sicily, shows the receipt clearly lists the charge as ‘appertura tappo’, or ‘cap opening’ in English.

The buyer, not named in Italian media, took to social media to shame the shop by sharing the receipt online after managers refused a refund.

But the owners defended the charge saying customers can only get refunds if the wine is spoiled.

They said: “If the wine tastes corked, the customer can request that it be changed.”

The charge is the latest in a string of accusations that restaurants across Italy routinely rip off customers with outrageous charges for so-called extras.

An Italian ice cream shop sent angry customers into meltdown after it emerged that it had charged one punter EUR 1 for an extra spoon.

And at one restaurant a family was charged EUR 15 (GBP 13.05) for waiters to cut their own birthday cake.

Another had to pay EUR 2 (GBP 1.74) for an empty plate, while one eaterie charged a customer EUR 2 to have a sandwich cut in half.