Discover Florence’s Wine Windows, Florence, Italy

Throughout their history, Florence’s wine windows have been associated with tax breaks, plague protection, and a whole lot of fun!

Imagine you were a thirsty, 16th century Florentine, and your wine flask was empty, no problem. You could just pop down to a wine window in one of the big palaces, and ring the bell for a refill. Wouldn’t it be great if you could do that today? Well, you can… sort of…

During the Renaissance, Florence had hundreds of these wine-dispensing windows. And the remnants of them can still be seen throughout the city. They are called buchette del vino, which literally means little wine holes. But today we call them wine windows, which sounds a bit more sophisticated, as no one likes to drink at a hole in the wall.

Closed-up Windows: Over the years, most of Florence’s wine windows have been closed up. These can be seen all around the city, but don’t bother knocking.

And some of these holes in the wall - I mean wine windows - are open for business again. The buildings they are in were once grand palaces, but over the years, they’ve been converted into businesses, apartments, hotels, etc.

So restaurants and bars that are lucky enough to be in buildings with these little wine windows are chipping off the years of paint that have sealed them up and are serving glasses of wine through them. So, while you can’t refill your flask, you can knock or ring and get a nice glass of wine. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).