We live in a world that has changed considerably over the past few months. It wasn’t all that long ago that we would head down to the local pub or perhaps a restaurant in our neighborhood to enjoy a glass of wine with friends. It is something that was such a part of our life that we could never imagine a time when we would give it up. Just a few months later, however, we find that it is difficult to get out and enjoy those times with friends. In fact, the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown has made it almost impossible at times. That is where human ingenuity and history come in.
This isn’t the first time that a pandemic has swept the world. The black death, which was the bubonic plague, killed one third of the people in Europe when it swept through the continent. The disease, similar to the coronavirus, also originated in Asia and by the late Middle Ages, it was in Italy and then continued north. During that time, the Italians still enjoyed their wine but they did so by use of an ingenious invention known as the ‘wine window’. These wine windows of Tuscany are small hatches that are carved in the concrete to allow merchants to pass out glasses of wine but maintain their distance.
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During the 1600s, these wine windows gained popularity but for centuries, they primarily went unused. Thanks to the coronavirus, they are now being used once again.
“Everyone is confined to home for two months and then the government permits a gradual reopening,” the Wine Window Association website reads. “During this time, some enterprising Florentine Wine Window owners have turned back the clock and are using their Wine Windows to dispense glasses of wine, cups of coffee, drinks, sandwiches and ice cream – all germ-free, contactless!”
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According to the president of the Wine Window Association, “People could knock on the little wooden shutters and have their bottles filled direct from the Antinori, Frescobaldi and Ricasoli families, who still produce some of Italy’s best-known wine today.”
There are over 151 Windows within the walled city, although some of them have been filled permanently.
“The wine windows gradually became defunct, and many wooden ones were permanently lost in the floods of 1966,” said Faglia, whose historical association has begun the process of mapping these forgotten, and sometimes vandalized, relics throughout Italy’s wine country, marking them with a plaque to designate their import and authenticity.
“We want to put a plaque by all the wine windows, as people tend to respect them more when they understand what they are and their history,” he said.
This just makes me want to visit Italy even more.
