Wine runs like water in Venice, and perhaps even more so. Given the hardship of finding clean-drinking water in such a marshy land, wine often became the cheaper and healthier option. However, it needed to be stored somewhere and the business of producing wine casks became so florid that producers founded their own guild, based here in Calle dei Botteri, the street of the barrel-makers.
Perhaps an indication of how much wine was appreciated by the ruling class, a law was passed which forced the Botteri to pay for the construction and reparation of Barrels for the Doge’s Palace.
