(TAN): The COVID-19 pandemic has revived wine windows, or buchette del vino, in Italy’s Tuscany, where they had started being used in the 1600s during The Great Plague.
According to reports, businesses have resumed selling wine, drinks and gelato, among other things, through these tiny holes in the wall to minimize contact and reduce the chances of coronavirus infection.
[ALSO READ: Six French tourists gunned down in Niger]
“I have recently located the oldest description of the use of wine windows in Florence in a book published in 1634, as reported in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica in an article by Carmela Adinolfi. The description describes one of the most recent periods of The Plague in the city, which had afflicted European populations for centuries,” Diletta Corsini says in Buchette del Vino.
“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…. 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,” Corsini adds.
[ALSO READ: Croatia sees 10% rise in Polish tourists in August]
In the middle ages, the sellers also avoided collecting money directly. They instead had the buyers place the coins on a metal plate, which was disinfected with vinegar before collection.
Reports said more than 150 wine windows are currently operating in Florence.
