'UNIQUE STREET FOOD IN ITALY - From Florence FooD Tour Series by Tarantula Binging When Italy went into lockdown in February, the nation came together to battle COVID-19. Opera singers and musicians regaled neighbors from their balconies while rainbow flags hung from windows with the words andrá tutto bene — everything will be alright. In Florence, creative restaurant and bar owners have now taken inspiration from a medieval architectural quirk to keep their businesses and the spirit of the city alive. According to Florence\'s Wine Window Association, a handful of wine windows have opened across the city — some for the first time in living memory. Wine Windows, or buchette del vino, are little hatches which were originally used to sell surplus wine direct to Florence\'s working class. The Wine Window Association\'s president Matteo Faglia told Insider the windows started to be built in 1532, continuing right up to the 19th century. \"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.\" Wine windows are unique to Tuscany, but often go unnoticed These wine windows are unique to Florence and Tuscany, and were once a normal part of everyday life here. Overshadowed by Uffizi Gallery\'s renaissance wonders and the beauty of the Duomo, they are a much-overlooked part of Florentine architecture. Attached to old palaces and noble households, wine windows can be spotted around Florence, with many dating back to medieval times. Over 150 wine windows can be found within Florence\'s old city walls alone, with many more across the region. A full map can be found on the Buchette del Vino website. As laws on selling wine changed in the early 20th century, Matteo Faglia told Insider: \"The wine windows gradually became defunct, and many wooden ones were permanently lost in the floods of 1966.\" The windows are now serving gelato and coffee, too Ice-cream parlour Vivoli near the Duomo and Uffizi Gallery owns one such wine window, which they\'ve opened up to sell gelato and coffee. Nearby, tourists and locals are enjoying cocktails from Osteria delle Brache in Piazza Peruzzi — served through a hatch which is both Instagram and COVID-friendly. Over the river in the Santo Spirito, restaurant and wine bar Babae serves glasses of wine through their wine window from 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. each evening. The association\'s president Matteo Faglia hopes that after COVID, attitudes to the wine windows will start to change. \"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 told Insider.'
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