We are working our way to the northern end of the ‘heel’ of Italy, a land of endless vineyards and olive trees. Puglia is definitely a fertile part of Italy and is known as ‘the bread basket’.
Ostuni is a hilltop town known as the ‘white city’. A labyrinth of paths, whitewashed houses, winding alleys lead to the late 15th-century Cathedral at the top of the hill and in the center of the ancient city.
The Church of San Francesco d’Assisi is a beautiful church located in the main square Piazza della Libertà, adjacent to the Palazzo di Città (Palace of the City).
My bucket list has long included a visit to Alberobello and vicinity to see the trulli houses and structures.
We saw rural trulli all along the Itria Valley, however the highest concentration and best preserved examples of this architectural form are in Alberobello, where there are over 1500 structures.
These curious, somehow gnome-like, conical-roofed whitewashed structures, are an icon of this region. In fact, this untouched and rural part of southern Italy is the only place they have ever existed.
Like many of the other places we have visited, Alberobello is a UNESCO World Heritage site (since 1996). Speaking of the trulli in the words of UNESCO:
“remarkable examples of drywall (mortarless) construction, a prehistoric building technique still in use in this region. The trulli are made of roughly worked limestone boulders collected from neighbouring fields. Characteristically, they feature pyramidal, domed or conical roofs built up of corbelled limestone slabs.”
Why are the trulli just here in Puglia? They were built in the 15th century to house peasants who would have to provide ten percent of their crops to the ruling Count Aquaviva. This tricky feudal nobleman came upon the idea of building the structures with just the limestone rocks and no mortar, so that they could be easily dismantled and he could avoid paying taxes to the Kingdom of Naples if an inspector happened to come by!
Trulli in former times …. They haven’t changed!
