Italy Is Bringing Back 17th Century “Wine Windows” That Were Used During The Plague

During this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all kinds of businesses are looking for different ways to keep providing their services while ensuring social distancing. Thanks to people’s creativity, such practice had recently managed to revive Italy’s legendary wine-selling tradition dating back to the 17th century.

These “Wine Windows”, or buchette del vino, that you can see in the photos bellow, were used by vintners in Italy to sell wine during plague pandemics that took place in the 17th century.

More info: buchettedelvino.org

Currently, these adorable little “wine windows” are being used again to serve customers wine, cocktails and other drinks while still maintaining social distancing

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A post shared by Buchette del Vino (@buchettedelvino) on Jul 10, 2020 at 1:27am PDT

“Today, during our period of covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the owners of the wine window in Via dell’Isola delle Stinche at the Vivoli ice cream parlor in Florence have reactivated their window for dispensing coffee and ice cream, although not wine. Two other nearby wine windows, that of the Osteria delle Brache in Piazza Peruzzi and that of Babae in Piazza Santo Spirito, have taken us back in time by being used for their original purpose—socially-distant wine selling,” The Wine Windows Association, which works to preserve the remaining wine windows, writes on their website.

These windows were previously used in 1960s in Florence, during the plague

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A post shared by Buchette del Vino (@buchettedelvino) on May 10, 2020 at 12:32am PDT

According to the website of The Wine Windows Association, “Francesco Rondinelli, the Florentine scholar and academic, in “Relazione del Contagio Stato in Firenze l’anno 1630 e 1633”, during the terrible bubonic plague epidemic occurring in Europe at that time, reported that wine producers who were selling their own wine through the small wine windows in their Florentine palaces, understood the problem of contagion.”

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A post shared by Buchette del Vino (@buchettedelvino) on Aug 7, 2020 at 11:57pm PDT

“They passed the flask of wine through the window to the client but did not receive payment directly into their hands. Instead, they passed a metal pallet to the client, who placed the coins on it, and then the seller disinfected them with vinegar before collecting them,” reads the website.