The Florentine “wine holes” witnesses of wine history, now tourist attractions

The now famous Florentine “wine holes”, testimonies of history linked to wine, which WineNews wrote about before they became famous, narrate a sort of “take away” during the Renaissance. They have become a cultural wine tourism attraction in the present and the highlight of a guided tour that will lead enthusiasts and the curious to discover the over 180 “holes” in Florence, inside and outside the walls (plus another hundred in the metropolitan area and the outskirts). These open windows are found in some of the most prestigious palaces in the city (for instance, plaque number 1 is in Palazzo Antinori), which in the Renaissance were used by travelers to buy wine produced by the noble Florentine families. Today, some have been reopened as an anti-Covid19 measure. The “Buchette del Vino Cultural Association of Florence” is promoting guided tours, on foot or by bicycle, as well as video tours, together with the contribution of the city’s Tourism Department, led by Cecilia Del Re.
“It is a very fascinating initiative”, said Councilor Cecilia Del Re, “and will help to accompany restarting the tourism sector, which is experiencing a serious crisis, due to the effects of the Pandemic. Furthermore, the “wine holes” are a way to rediscover the history of Florence. During the lockdown, some Florentine businesses reopened the “buchette” to serve their products in an anti-contagion mode. This project has taken the right direction by promoting unusual itineraries of art, history and the daily life of Florentines, yesterday and today. The initiative is also part of the projects the Tourism Department has funded to enhance outdoor and innovative tourism in line with the increasingly essential objectives of social, environmental and economic sustainability”.
“The project”, said Matteo Faglia, the president of the Associazione delle Buchette del Vino of Florence, “which aims to let the Florentines as well as all the Italian and foreign enthusiasts in this city get to know an actually very little known, but a characteristic aspect, full of interesting facts and surprises. We have created a series of videos and guided tours to discover a different Florence. We offer a variety of itineraries through the streets of Florence and in the hills around the city, highlighted by seeing the original windows through which, for four centuries, good wine has been sold directly from the producer to the consumer”. The first video tour will be online on January 30, 2021, on the websites www.feelflorence.it and www.buchettedelvino.org, while the first guided tour (for a maximum of 15 people) will take place in the historic center of Florence on February 6th.