Boccalino
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A glazed terracotta jug, the signature object of the Ticino grotto.
The Boccalino fits in one hand: a small, round-bellied jug of glazed terracotta, barely ten centimetres tall, standing on a round foot, with a handle and a spout. It holds about two decilitres. Its name is a diminutive of the Italian boccale, a pitcher.
It is used for drinking nostrano, Ticino’s local wine, and some people cut it with Gazosa. Boccalini are recognised by their painted decoration: plain blue and red bands running round the belly, the foot or the neck, bunches of grapes and vine leaves, or Ticinese motifs, buildings and monuments.
Its shape comes from far back. Handled jugs of this kind were already made in Antiquity, and they served as a wine measure in Piedmont, Lombardy and Tuscany. It reached Ticino in the 19th century, with migrants from Italy. For a long time it was shaped and painted by hand in the canton.
Its fame dates from the 1950s. Tourists were then flocking to Italian-speaking Switzerland and brought boccalini home in their suitcases, along with wooden clogs; the jug became the image of Ticino on posters and gave its name to any number of grotti and restaurants across the country. That success ended up harming it: in the 1970s, having become the symbol of mass tourism, it vanished from Ticinese tables.
Sources: Wikipedia, “Boccalino” (Italian and German).
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