Alberobello, Martina Franca & Locortondo ….a triumvirate of Trulli towns

October 20

Our primary purpose in coming to this area is to see the trulli (plural, trullo is singular) which are the traditional homes in the Itria Valley of Puglia. A few words about the trulli > they are constructed from roughly worked limestone excavated on-site in the process of creating sub-floor cisterns and from boulders collected from nearby fields and rock outcrops. Characteristically, the buildings are rectangular forms with conical corbelled roofs. The whitewashed walls of the trulli are built directly onto limestone bedrock and constructed using a dry-stone wall technique (that is, without the use of mortar or cement), although new construction does use cement/mortar. Water is collected via projecting eaves at the base of the roof thereby diverting water through a channeled slab into a cistern beneath the house. 

Trulli are specific to central-southern Puglia and the most famous town of trulli is Alberobello. This is where you can see 1,500 trulli grouped together to make up a community that looks like no other in Italy. It is so unique that it is now a protected UNESCO World Heritage site.

Our plan is to visit Alberobello, Locortondo, and Martina Franca which have the largest concentrations of these buildings….it is a  beauty of a morning as off we go. The drive is great as Geeps seems to be taking every back road to reach Alberobello, the countryside here is quite beautiful, dotted with freshly plowed fields, vineyards, and of course, trullis, popping out hither and thither…

We have read that this town has become somewhat overwhelmed by tourists so we are there by 08:30, the sky which started out so clear has clouded over but nevertheless, we are off and running (walking) checking out the trulli:

Click on images to enlarge:

By 10:00 people are starting to flow in and the vanguard has caught up to us firing away in every direction…time to head elsewhere…

We next drive to Martina Franca a relatively large town of 50m with a rich history, we loved this town and in particular, the Centro Storico which has a wealth of Baroque architecture. We enter through Santo Stefano’s Arch, the gateway to the town, a triumphal entrance in Baroque style.

Below is the  Basilica di San Martino with a wonderful façade that is extremely fine.

Inside the splendor continues, clearly this town had a rich constituency in its time:

… and then unfolding for us was the Piazza Plebiscito which was a highlight

We then lucked into a good “tipico” resto, our owner later told us it was one of the older osterias in the town and well respected…suffice to say we were happy with our choice: orecchiette and turnip tops, mixed grill, some local wine, and a  small coffee…lovely !!

 

 

Heading back to our car we stopped here and there just gazing at some of the superlative remnants of past times…

 

 

 

It has been a day of superlatives and as we head back to our trullo (with some creature comforts), we reflect on how cool it has been to see this part of the world!!!