Drink like Da Vinci: Italy is bringing back its 17th-century ‘wine windows’

Talk about Renaissance

Wine

It’s like medieval drive-thru: Call out your order through the buchette del vino, and a phantom hand will serve you.

Where did these things come from?

17th-century Italian aristocrats wanted to run wine businesses, but they weren’t so keen on paying taxes.

So they carved up slits in their cellar walls to sell vino on the DL.

Then the bubonic plague hit

Wine windows became a safe way to do business. A recent survey found ~300 still exist.

Now you can pay by credit card -- but back in the day, you dropped coins into a metal holder, and the seller disinfected them with vinegar.

Contactless tech? That’s so 1600s.