The imposing beauty of Florence captures the attention of anyone who visits it. With its fountains, squares and cathedrals, it seems that there was no time to look at anything else. However, if you pay a little attention to its streets, you will still find some small windows that surprise you. Easy to miss, shaped like a tabernacle and surrounded by stone, we have the buchetteor also called wine windows.
During the time of Renaissance, These tiny windows placed at elbow height housed wine bars and were usually located on the exterior walls of the buildings of the wealthiest families in Tuscany. What tradition says is that when night fell, those interested approached these windows and knocked on the wooden shutter. Once there, they had to leave a few florins in exchange for a glass of Chianti wine or rose wine from Tuscany.
Despite being a purely commercial purpose, they were very useful, especially during pandemics like the Black Death, since it was a way to minimize contact as much as possible.
Unfortunately, They closed in the year 1900 and they fell into oblivion, so much so that generations and generations of locals were unaware of this practice. And in less than 100 years, most were eradicated, vandalized or converted into doorbells.
The wine windows today
If there is one good thing that came out of 2020, it was the reopening of the ‘wine windows’. With the same dynamic, some places like the Babae restaurant recovered the functionality of one of these buchette.
It is also joined by a few more, such as the Vivioli ice cream parlour, which has reinvented the concept and offers its ice creams and cocktails through these unique windows.
Thus, these windows are a look to the past and the architecture of the time. Now, if you have already prepared your next city getaway, you will surely pay attention to the details. Many times it is those little things, the ones that go unnoticed, that hold a great story.
LinkedinBeloud
#original #oldest #drink #wine #Italy #traditional #buchettes #Florence
