fiasco

A fiasco (; , plural: ) is a typical Italian style of bottle, usually with a round body and bottom, partially or completely covered with a close-fitting straw basket. The basket is typically made of sala, a swamp weed, sun-dried and blanched with sulfur. The basket provides protection during transportation and handling, and also a flat base for the container. Thus the glass bottle can have a round bottom, which is much simpler to make by glass blowing. Fiaschi can be efficiently packed for transport, with the necks of inverted bottles safely tucked into the spaces between the baskets of upright ones. History Boccaccio mentions the fiasco in the Decameron (around 1350), as a receptacle for red wine and administrative documents of the time mention the profession of fiascaio ("fiasco-maker"). Common fiasco sizes of the time were the quarto ("quarter", 5.7 liters), mezzo quarto ("half quarter", 2.28 liters), and metadella ("small half", 1.4 liters).