Buchetta del Vino Belle Donne | Historic Wine Window

This guide to the historic wine window on Via delle Belle Donne in Florence opens with a woman pounding on a shuttered hatch on a snowy morning, one of only two people the old rules allowed to buy wine outside business hours. You'll hear how noble families won the right to sell wine straight to the street after Duke Cosimo I's 1559 decree, how a street once known for its red-light trade set posted hours for the trade, and what these small windows were later pressed into service for during another crisis entirely. Picture the straw-wrapped flask passed hand to hand through the hole beside you.