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When there's a pandemic, things we take for granted become difficult to do. Perhaps most importantly, going out and drinking. Believe it or not, this isn't the first time people (in particular, Italians) have faced the conundrum of how to drink alcohol while socially distancing.
During the Italian plague of 1629-1631, some wine merchants came up with a genius idea: they carved little windows in the walls of their buildings that were just big enough to fit a hand holding a flask of wine. Like this, the wine merchants could continue their business of selling wine and the townspeople could continue their business of getting drunk - without infecting each other (vinegar was used as a disinfectant back then).
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In the midst of our own pandemic, bars and wineries in Tuscany have adopted the nifty little wine windows again, serving wine, Aperol Spritzes, coffee and gelato to customers on the street. According to Buchette del Vino, a non-profit set up to preserve these useful windows, there are around 150 wine windows in Tuscany.
Over time, as pandemics disappeared, most of the wine windows were boarded up and forgotten about. But Florence businesses have made good use of them again, where over 100 of the windows are located.
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As uncertainty dominates our lives for who-knows-how-long while we wait out the pandemic, residents and tourists in Tuscany can at least enjoy the pleasure of drinking wine outside - an activity we all took for granted before 2020. I think that bars across the world could learn a lot from those clever wine merchants from the 17th century.
Italians Outsmart Us All With 17th Century Wine Windows
How do you drink at a bar during a pandemic? Some 17th century wine merchants had a brilliant answer to this, and Italians today are using their in ingenious inventions: wine windows.
Interested in more stories about Europe? Read about how the sound of nature in France became legally protected after some Karens complained about it.
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