To bring a smile to everyone’s face this January day! Discover the ‘buchette del vino’ of Florence. These are little doors, found in the walls of grand palaces, all over the city centre. They look like little fairy-tale entrances to huge, fortified buildings. Typically these little doors are wooden, with a large bolt securing them from the inside of the building. These small doors or windows could be opened, on to the street, and used for the sale of wine from the wine cellar within. A type of medieval off-licence.

In renaissance times Florence was a densely populated city, the streets were narrow and the houses were built in heavily fortified, almost military style, with thick walls and huge imposing doors. The city was surrounded by walls and the gates to the city were closed at night. The wealthy families of Tuscany owned land and vineyards in the countryside and palaces in the city. Each year after the grape harvest they would transport vast quantities of wine from their estates to their city homes. These houses would all have a wine cellar on the ground floor, or in the cellar, just to the left or right of the main entrance to the building. This wine cellar or ‘cantina’ would be connected to the outside world via a tiny window ‘buchetta’ that could be used for wine sales to passers by. The wine was sold one bottle at a time, offered in a raffia covered ‘fiasco’ of the kind used by Chianti Ruffini until well into the 1970s. Many of the aristocratic families that had ‘buchette’ in their palace walls are still important wines makers today including Antinori, Frescobaldi and Ricasoli.

In recent years many of these ‘buchette’ have been bricked up or painted over. However in 2016 an enterprising local gentleman Matteo Faglia set up an association in Florence with the aim of listing and recording all the existing ‘buchette’ in the city. As Signore Faglia says in the video below, they expected to list about 100 ‘buchette’ but in fact they’ve unearthed more than 180. When the plague or black death arrived in Florence in the 1630s many people died and citizens stayed in their houses terrified of catching the disease that lurked in the streets below. The ‘buchette’ were useful in times of plague because wine could be bought in a socially distanced way.

March 2021 – Now 400 years later we are surrounded by ‘the pandemic’ our very own 21st century plague. It has closed our economies, locked us in our homes and prevented us from travelling. However an enterprising group of friends in Florence managed to think laterally and find a solution. In Summer 2019 they opened a small bar with kitchen called ‘Babae’ in Via Santo Spirito. Within six months of opening the shadow of Covid-19 reared its head over Europe and Italy was the first victim. By early March 2020 Florence was in lockdown. Bars and cafes were closed but take away was permitted. The young owners of ‘Babae’ realised they had a small ‘buchetta’ in the wall of their bar. What luck! They opened it up and started serving wines and cocktails and certain food through the medieval ‘takeaway’ window. Watch the video below for more details from ‘Babae’.

In fact just three months before ‘Babae’ opened I was in Florence with a group of business executives, we’d been driving Ferrari super cars in Tuscany. For the Farewell Dinner I’d organised a night at ‘Cantinetta Antinori’ a fabulous restaurant owned by the Antinori family and offering a superb selection of Antinori wines and fabulous Tuscan dishes. I didn’t know about the ‘buchetta’ at the time, when I go back I’ll have to look out for it.

In these ‘socially distanced’ times the ‘buchette’ are being used as a way to serve drinks and cocktails to customers in an imaginative way, allowing business to continue (at least partially) whilst we struggle to bring the pandemic under control.

NOTES:

• If you’d like to discover the hidden roads and courtyards of Florence – including a wine window or two – then contact: janet@grand-tourist.com This year we are offering 3-nights in a beautiful palazzo hotel (family-owned), fabulous walking tours of Florence and some mouth-watering food and wine. Prices start at: Euros € 1800 per person (based on two paying) for a short break of total luxury, discovery and Tuscan history.
• Complimenti to Matteo Faglia who started buchettedelvino.org – the association that has promoted and catalogued these fabulous ‘buchette’ and so far have listed 180 in Florence alone. There are also many to be found in Pistoia, a city about 45 minutes from Florence.
• Here’s a very nice video from the BBC telling us more about ‘buchette’ ……
• http://www.bbc.com/…/20200910-florences-wine-portals…
• How to survive a plague: Italy – enchanted gardens story-telling and survival…
• I believe Stanley Tucci has discovered the ‘Wine Windows’ too…………
• And for those that prefer gelato to wine even Florence’s famous ‘Vivoli’ Gelateria is in on the act!
• Vivoli Gelateria – www.vivoli.it
• If you like the ideas and sentiments included in this article you might enjoy the journeys in Europe that our sister company www.grand-tourist.com creates for groups and individuals.
• For similar articles explore our blog www.greyhoundtrainers.com

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT……

For other adventures in Tuscany by www.greyhoundtrainers.com and www.grand-tourist.com explore these articles:

• Grand Tourist – unique journeys in Italy
• Wonderful Tuscany – Villa San Michele 
• Florence – 15th century ‘Procession of the Magi’
• Italy – enchanted gardens story-telling and survival…

Drive a Ferrari, Porsche or Lamborghini in Tuscany

• Written: March, 2021
• Updated: April 2022 / June 2022 / January 2023