Small openings that served wine and great tradition
Teeny openings in pietra serena with their time-worn wooden doors still peer out of Florence’s noble palaces. These are the Buchette del Vino (wine windows), one of the city’s most curious and fascinating traditions. They came about at the height of the Renaissance when the trade that had made Florence powerful fell into a period of crisis and the great aristocratic families chose to convert their wealth into vast agricultural estates. Grape cultivation quickly grew, marking the beginning of a history that continues to run through the veins of Tuscany.
In the beginning, these small openings, carved into the façades of aristocratic palaces and calibrated to the size of a fiasco with its signature straw basket, had a precise function: to allow wine to pass from the aristocratic world of the palaces to the daily life of the city, in a simple yet extraordinary gesture of exchange and conviviality. There are about 170 in Florence, some well preserved and others almost invisible, camouflaged in the web of alleyways. In recent years, thanks to the work of the Associazione Buchette del Vino, many have been surveyed, marked with plaques and chronicled in publications and on tours.
Wine windows in Florence - Credit: Marta Mancini
Today, some have even come back to life. A number of cafés, wine bars and even gelato places have chosen to serve their glasses or artisanal products right through these little windows, giving visitors a unique and authentic experience. Wine doors are not just architectural rarities but fragments of Florence’s history that for centuries have delighted those who stroll the city streets and tell of lineages, the countryside and conviviality, inviting all to look at the city with more attentive and curious eyes. To learn more, check out the City of Florence website and access the full map of wine windows.
