Two Parts Italy

Even Lady and the Tramp had a fiasco on their dinner table

It is easy to recognize the classic bottle of a Chianti wine – a fiasco (flask) with a rounded base wrapped in straw. After all, is there an Italian restaurant in the US that doesn’t have a fiasco on the table, usually topped with a candle and covered in dripping wax? A fiasco even made an appearance in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp!

Chianti wine is produced in an area of Tuscany that stretches roughly from Florence south to Siena, a specially designated region since the time when the Medici family ruled Florence. Historically, the classic straw wrapped bottles were made in the city of Florence, creating a special relationship in which the Florentine bottles were sent to the wineries outside of the city where the new Chianti was bottled, and then the filled bottles were sent back to merchants in Florence. Of course, this transport began long before there were trucks to move the bottles back and forth, so how did the wine bottles return to Florence after they were filled?

The Carro Matto arrives to Florence’s Duomo

In centuries past, the new wine was brought from the countryside on an ox cart. Once in Florence, the wine was blessed by the church and the first bottles presented to city leaders. Then It was time to celebrate.

Today, the tradition of blessing the new Chianti is celebrated on the last Saturday in September when the Carro Matto (crazy cart) procession takes place. Once pulled by oxen, this year it was a tractor that pulled the cart which was piled high with over 1000 bottles of wine in the classic fiaschi.

The procession began in front of the Duomo and moved down Via Calzaiuoli. Along the way it made a brief stop at the small Church of San Carlo dei Lombardi, very near the part of the city where a traditional maker of the flasks (a fiascaio) would have had his workshop. The procession ended in Piazza Signoria where a fiasco was presented to city leaders. In the 1400 and 1500’s the first bottle might have gone to a Medici – today it was given to the elected mayor.

Accompanying the Carro Matto were people dressed in historic costumes, helmeted guards, musicians, and the Bandierai degli Uffizi (traditional flag bearers) who delighted the crowd with their flag-throwing. Women carried individual fiaschi to be presented to the dignitaries.

Crowds watched as the cart made its way along the route, looking as if the bottles could topple at any minute. A crazy cart indeed. Fortunately, the bottles remained in place, the wine was blessed, and the celebrations continued. Time to toast the new wine with a glass of Chianti!