A small Town within the City of Bari, in Apulia’s region of southern Italy known for its Trulli buildings. The area is part of the coastal plain to the Mediterranean where olive groves are everywhere.  It does snow here in winter but only occasionally!

The Masseria, the largest farm houses, have mostly been subdivided now but many are still working farms.  This region was once filled with oak trees that were only found here in Puglia until in 282 B.C. this valley was crossed with elephants and the oak trees were leveled. This was farmland, cows everywhere! Believe me the burrata and mozzarella here are amazing as is the white wine! Wine! Did someone say wine?

The Trulli have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1996.  There are more than 1500 Trulli in this non-farming environment.  Trulli are also found throughout the countryside but the largest collection is right within the Town of Alberobello.  A single house in known as a Trullo.  The popular central town area is Rione Monti leads up to the top of the hill to the main church – Chiesa di Sant’ Antonio.

Trulli have conical roofs constructed of limestone from the region.  These are ancient stone houses some dating back as far as the Bronze Age c.1350.  They were constructed by peasants using a dry wall construction method made without mortar, a prehistoric building technique still in use featuring domed or conical roofs.

Today some are used as stores, restaurants, lodging but most are homes. They developed as temporary structures that were easy to demolish and an efficient means to evade taxes at the times to the feudal lord. They are and were incredibly durable so this was not at all accurate.  They are warm in winter and cool in summer.  The roof is composed of horizontal limestone slabs in concentric circles and typically have a central room with additional living spaces in arched alcoves.

The keystone is often decorated and is a very important structural element individualizing each property and is something of a status symbol.

Keystones on the rooftops

Conical roofs

Wandering the streets

The roofs are often decorated with fanciful symbols supposedly having religious symbolism or superstitious significance.

Fanciful roof symbols

This is an area of Italy I will return to someday.  Fascinating history and architecture and oh yeah the WINE!!!!

Again I would be remiss if I didn’t thank our fabulous guide Michele who gave us all sorts of history, stories and shared more than a few bottles of wine with us before jetting off to spend the weekend with his lady in Russia!

Ready to continue our tour of the Puglia region. Next up is Matera!  Come join me.