Alberobello was high on my list for decades. Don’t remember when and how I first encountered stories of this town, but I knew someday I will visit the village with the most interesting houses.
When planning the summer trip, we were lucky to even get an opportunity to have a night stay in one of Alberobello iconic trullis.
Most of the old trullis have been now converted or even upscale renovated for the tourist rent, so finding a suitable one at a affordable price, was a month’s research and reservation hold.
With a population of around 10 000 and 1500 trullis the village hase been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996 and listed on the Most beautiful villages in Italia, Borghi più belli d’Italia together with Nardò.
The first settlers in the area were recorded in 1600, during the rule of Count of Conversano Andrea Matteo III Acquaviva d’Aragona who allowed the villagers to reside under condition of taking the taxes. The usual, right.
The development of the area was helped by the abundance of calcareous sedimentary limestone, however the Count wanted to avoid paying his taxes to the Spanish Viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples so he commanded to build houses only with dry stone walls without the use of mortar, which would become the peculiar trulli.
Built without any connecting material, these structures would be easily dismantled or demolished whenever a tax collector would be seen to arrive at the village.
Build with delicate care and careful adjusting of the stones, trullis are of the round form with self-supporting domed roof. The roofs were often decorated with pinnacles representing the signature of the architect (master trullaro).
Many of these information we found out during our free walking tour while being the only guests for the local guide Eustachio . He drove from his house on Lecce and took us on the very detailed walk around beautiful trullis and narrow streets of Alberobello.
The heat of the summer day was exhausting to the point where our kid slept (again) in the late afternoon, recovering before dinner and an evening stroll with a mandatory visit to the playground in the dark while staring in the clear starry sky. Never a dull moment with kids, ay?
