Where There Is Wine, There Is A Window
A visit to Firenze for most people includes a stop at all the famous sights — The Uffizi and The Accademia, The Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, shopping, and a gelato stop or two to knock back the heat. These, of course, are must dos and, like anywhere else we have been multiple times, we try to see something new - a facade, a fountain, a carving, a capitello, street art, and my new favorite, a ‘buchette del vino’.
What are these buchette you ask? They are some of the most genius bits of architecture with a history all their own. There are hundreds of them in Florence, most all of them now just visual history of a Firenze gone by. They are small tiny windows attached to the cellar of a home from which wine was sold. Walk up with your ‘fiasco’ or wine flask, give a knock on the tiny window or door, pass your fiasco through with some money and it is returned to you full of wine; direct from the anonymous seller’s production. No chatting, no fuss, no receipt, no real human contact. Knock and quickly on your way with a full bottle in hand. Genius, right?!?! No wonder the Renaissance flourished in Firenze! I am totally and completely obsessed with these magical ‘wine fairy’ doors and no trip to Florence passes without a good game of ‘wine (door) and seek’.
There are more than 100 in the Historical City Center with even more on the outskirts. There isn’t a definitive number as, similar to Roman Ruins or Etruscan Treasures, Buchette are still being discovered. Like most architectural details of Florence (or the whole of Italy for that matter), they are a reminder of daily life centuries ago.
As I understand the story goes, Florentine wine producers who lived in the city didn’t have a secure way to transport wine from their countryside farms. Horse-drawn carriages with wooden wheels carrying glass fiascos over kilometers of strade bianche (gravel roads) was obviously not ideal, so instead, they moved the wine into the city in small barrels. It is from these small barrels they would sell their wine directly to customers via the small holes in the wall of the cellar. With the movement of time, improvements in transportation, and the introduction of the enoteca (wine shop); the wine windows quietly took their place in Florence’s past. Many are permanently closed with stucco or stone, some hidden from view for centuries. Some Buchette are ceremoniously displayed, most are obscure hidden jewels in the rough. The latter are my personal favorite to find and when I do I can’t help contain my excitement.
Photo Credit: Buchette del Vino
Recently, these Wine Windows had ‘a moment’. Common knowledge to all is that history repeats. In 1964, an article was written by Carmela Adinolfi in the newspaper, “La Repubblica”, noting the useful function of the wine windows as anti-contagion devices for selling wine during The Plague. In 2020, during the COVID19 Lockdown, owners of wine windows attached to businesses have reopened their windows as a way to safely sell gelato, coffee, aperitivo and wine.
Isn’t there a saying, “Where there is wine, there’s a way”? I don’t know. Maybe that’s just my saying. Regardless, thanks to the genius business ingenuity of the past, where there is a WINE WINDOW, there is a way today in the socially distanced ‘new normal’.
Architectural details are always keen on form, often with hidden function. Buchette wine windows - some ornate, some unadorned - centuries old yet entirely useful in modern day. Move over paintings in the Uffizi, you have competition.
Want to seek out some Buchette? Join us! We will plan a fun day visiting the sites, hunting down doors and sipping wine and eating gelato along the way. Booking 2021 now! Contact us today! You can also visit our websites at THE CONCIERGIST and BELLA VITA VACATIONS.
