Wine Windows Remind Us Of The Need to Find Ways to Live with Contagious Organisms

An article in Decanter describers the return of wine windows....small windows in which drink was served to patrons during the times of the bubonic plague.  Now with COVID-19, there is a move to revive these wine windows.

Hopefully, this scourge. like the bubonic plague centuries ago, will pass.  But it is important that we learn how to live with it, because who knows whether the next contagion  will be right around the corner.  Or if it will be worse.   Hiding from it will only get us so far, but as we have seen with this virus, we can manage.  We need to accept the masks just as we accept wearing shoes or underwear.  Giving people some extra space is not a bad thing.  Minding our own health conditions with a nod towards staying home if not right is also good.   

A glass of Chianti please.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_91BtNCQyh/?utm_source=ig_embed

Decanter
https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/wine-windows-italy-covid-19-442211/
Italian city reopens ancient ‘wine windows’ during Covid-19

Once used during the bubonic plague, restaurants in Florence have resorted to traditional ‘wine
windows’ to serve socially distanced drinks to thirsty residents.

From cocktails and wine to coffee and ice cream, some restaurants in the Italian city of Florence have reopened centuries-old ‘wine windows’ to serve customers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the city’s Wine Windows Association, the move has taken us ‘back in time’ by reviving a method of socially distanced wine selling seen during outbreaks of bubonic plague in the city in the 17th century.
An Italian academic at that time, Francesco Rondinelli, wrote of how wine windows in the city’s palaces were used during the plague between 1630 and 1633; seemingly to help prevent contagion.

Wine producers ‘passed the flask of wine through the window to the client but did not receive payment directly into their hands’, wrote Diletta Corsini in a recent article on the Wine Windows Association’s website.

‘Instead, they passed a metal pallet to the client, who placed the coins on it, and then the seller disinfected them with vinegar,’ wrote Corsini, who cofounded the association in October 2015.

There are more than 100 wine windows in the centre of Florence, according to the group.

Restaurant Osteria Della Brache is one of those to have revived the tradition in 2020. It recently posted a photo of Instagram of its staff serving a takeaway Aperol Spritz through one of the small windows.