An urban treasure hunt to spot these curious miniature wine windows of Florence is the exact kind of activity I’d plan a trip to the beautiful Italian city around. I learned about the wine windows of Florence after finding out about the work of photographer, Robbin Gheesling, who has spent a few years documenting them to create a photography book, Wine Doors of Florence: Discover a Hidden Florence.
What’s a wine window – or door as they’re also referred to – you might ask? These little hatches called buchette del vino, were originally set into the walls of palazzos belonging to rich families who owned vineyards outside the city walls. Through the buchette, they would sell glasses or bottles of their wine to passing Florentine citizens.
At one time, they could be found all over the city. Nowadays, most have been either plastered over, cemented shut, or turned into letter boxes. There are still 150 left inside the old city walls and 25 outside the city walls (and counting) to discover. It’s certainly enough to justify a treasure hunt around the city to find them which you can do using this handy interactive map here.
I also read here that since Italy emerged from strict lockdown, several businesses in the Tuscan city started using them as contactless hatches, to serve glasses of wine, cups of coffee, drinks, sandwiches and ice cream to customers on the street – as they were used in 1634 when the Plague swept through Florence, according to records.
Originally though, they would have been connected to the palazzo store rooms (cantina), where a member of the household staff would sell ‘fiascos’ of wine (those old-fashioned straw-covered bottles) or pour wine directly into a customer’s cup or flask. The ‘cantiniere’ could also take orders on barrels of wine for home delivery and sell other products through the window such as flasks of olive oil, cured legs of pork, flour and vegetables from the family’s farm.
What’s also fascinating is that the little wooden doors were often designed as replicas of the main entrances to the palazzo they featured on. Many even had a plaque stating their opening hours and holidays.
Dive into the wonderful world of wine windows here and check out Robbin’s great photography book.
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