Buchette del vino", or wine windows

Buchette del vino", or wine windows, are a peculiar feature of Florence 🇮🇹



They are foot-high, dome-shaped holes in the thick, stone palazzi of the Renaissance city that six centuries ago were used to sell wine in a fiasco (glass bottle) without having to open a shop and avoid paying taxes.

These wine windows also posed a useful anti-contagion way to sell wine during the epidemic of 1630-1633. At that time, the bubonic plague hit Florence hard, killing 12% of the city's population.

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