Let’s say you find yourself in Florence on a fiery-hot summer afternoon, walking around the city’s narrow streets in a carefree manner. Let’s also say that, all of a sudden, you seem to notice the silhouette of a tiny, little door emerging from an ancient palace’s façade like a mirage. Don’t worry, it’s not that you have just arrived to Lilliput: you simply happened to chance upon one of the traditional “buchette del vino.”
Scattered throughout Florence’s city center, but also present in the nearby areas as well as in other Tuscan cities, this particular kind of “little door” is quite obviously too small to serve as either a real door or a window: what was it made for then? And why were these peculiar “portholes” so popular that there are more than 150 of them still left in Firenze? As the name itself suggests, the so-called “buchette del vino” (or “finestrini del vino”) were basically “little holes” (or “little windows”) used for wine. Their purpose was certainly not to adorn the façades they were built on: on they contrary, they rather had a more functional reason for being, that is a particular way of selling local wine from producer to consumer, directly on the street.
In most cases, the buchette are now unfortunately ignored or overlooked by the tourists rushing by. Even when the niches are finally noticed, they are often thought to be just old tabernacles, because of their similar structure and shape: a 15-inch-tall stone arched doorframe, usually located next to the large windows on the palaces’ ground floor and linked to the cantina (wine cellar) by a small wooden or metal door. After all, it is not by chance that these buchette were anciently called “tabernacoli del vino” (wine tabernacles). But the fact is that they represent a specific architectural and cultural feature of Florence and its surroundings.
The origins of the buchette del vino go back at least to the last decades of the 16th century: in the wake of some great changes in European politics and economy, many rich Florentine families had to put aside the banking and textile activities off which they had made their fortunes, in order to reinvent themselves as wine producers, thus allocating their land to a more profitable business. By then, however, the city of Florence had been associated with the production and consumption of wine for several centuries, to the extent that this activity had already become one of the most important sources of revenue: as it results from the chronicles of Giovanni Villani and Giovan Battista Tedaldi among others, at that time vineyards were not at all relegated to the famous Chianti area, but they were also present in the countryside which then laid just outside the city walls. Thus, important families such as the Strozzi, Albizi, Pazzi, Ricasoli, and Antinori began to invest in the wine sector.
However it may be, it was only in the 17th century that the buchette del vino reached the high-water mark of their popularity, especially on the most crowded streets of the city and in the Oltrarno district. There was at least a three-fold reason for the widespread diffusion of the “little windows:” first of all, by selling directly to the customer on the street through their own buchette, the rich families of winemakers managed to reduce costs, while keeping purchasers out of their grand palaces at the same time; in addition, given to the lowness and size of the buchetta (which was just larger than a bottle of wine), it was possible for customers to remain completely anonymous. By knocking on the “little door” of a nobleman’s palazzo, everyone could ask the servant working there for a fiasco (wicker wine bottle) or just a glass of the homemade wine, as well as for some olive oil, flour, ham, or vegetables from the rich man’s possessions. At the same time, in honor of San Martino Vescovo (patron saint of the Arte dei Vinattieri, Florence’s “Guild of Vintners”), people could leave in the niches some extra food or wine for those in need.
Nowadays, even though several buchette have been destroyed or forgotten after all these centuries, you still can find some of them as you walk by the unique lanes of the Renaissance City. In the last years, a few local associations have also been created in order to discover, safeguard, and try to list all the buchette del vino. Many of the “wine tabernacles” have lately been walled up: for example, the ones on Via degli Alfani 84, Via delle Caldaie 28, Via de’ Ginori 7 (Palazzo Neroni), and Borgo degli Albizi 12 (Palazzo Albizi), in which just an outline still survives. Others, however, are definitely well-preserved and they are still showing not only the original door, but also the accompanying plaques and timetables: one of the most remarkable buchette in the whole city, that on Via del Giglio 2 (Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni), has the words “Vendita di Vino” (Wine Sales) written all over in capital letters, while a near plaque informs us about the cantina’s opening hours, just as it is the case with the buchetta on Via delle Belle Donne 2 (Palazzo Viviani).
But there is more to the buchette del vino than being mere remnants of the past: many of them have actually been reinvented and destined for different, more modern purposes. The niche on Borgo degli Albizi 17 (Palazzo Landi) is now a mailbox, while those on Via dei Geppi 1 and Via Sant’Agostino 3 have been turned into real doorbells. A buchetta on Via de’ Bardi 31 has been used to advertise a local gelateria, while the “wine tabernacles” on Via San Cristofano 2 and Via di Santo Spirito 25 have become actual tabernacles including the effigies of the Holy Virgin. At least one of the city’s wine portals, then (the one marked “VINO” on Via del Trebbio 1, at the corner with Palazzo Antinori) is a clear fake, installed as a sort of publicity stunt for the nearby restaurant Buca Lapi.
All in all, even though that of the buchette del vino is maybe just a little fun fact in Florence’s grand history, it is nonetheless very interesting for those curious travelers who want to learn something new about the daily life of its past and present citizens.
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