Water supply - shared pipeOur house is

I would doubt that they have an obligation.   It may depend on whether you are resident in Italy - as if you live there full time you would have more sway with the water company.   If you arent reached by mains pressure on a shared pipe, you wont get it on a individual pipe and will need a 'pompa a pesca' .  Whatever, you will pay for it, not the water company!  But its worth asking.... 

You could add another cistern/tank to the system to give you a bigger 'buffer' whan the pressure drops - this could be the cheapest option. In UK prices range from about £400, but I know my Italian neighbour uses an industrial one he got from a farm

Two thousand litres is a lot of water - I'm wondering what you mean by "quite quickly" in regards to depletion! Anyway, one option you could make enquiries about is to sink your own bore. Even if no one else has done that, it doesn't mean there isn't water around. Even a steady trickle would refil your tank overnight. If the water is deep (40 m, for example), you would pump it up and basically always have full tank.With regard to sharing the municipal water supply - usually there should be a tank with a "divider" at the end of the public pipe, organised so that no one is deprived of water just because one of the users is drawing off a lot. Each division should receive the same amount of incoming water, with mutual overflows so that if one user isn't drawing water off, then the other can make use of it. You would then be in charge of your own pump and valve, and when you don't hear water trickling into your tank, you would go down and check the pump.

Thanks for the replies.    Very good ideas and I will fix up a meeting with the plumber to take forward these ideas.  Thanks!