It is no secret that Italy has a lot of history and architecture to offer, but every time, the country comes with new surprises. And this unique town with remarkable architecture is definitely a place you want to add into your Italy itinerary. Today I will take you on a trip to Alberobello and its unique Trulli houses!
Let's explore the extremely picturesque streets of Alberobello!
But first, What is a Trullo?
In some parts of Puglia - the southern region of Italy - the houses are built in a style you won't find in any other place in the world. The buildings you find here are called Trulli (Singular Trullo). This is a dry stone built building which means that they originally did not use mortar or cement. They have corbelled roofs, often containing religious or spiritual drawings which protect the people against evil.
Here you can see the drawings at the roof very well
The constructions are made this way thanks to the abundance of limestone in the area, and they were probably originally used as sheds and storage space around the 16th century or even earlier. When the local community improved their building skills they started building livable Trulli as well.
As more and more people in the area built Trulli and started living in them, small villages appeared.
There are also stories about another purpose of this building style, which say the Trulli villages date back to the 17th century when farmers could settle on the fief but had to pay a part of their harvest as a tax. To avoid taxes, they started building Trullis which did not look habited. Some stories also say that the houses were easy to break down if necessary.
This picture shows very well how thick this walls are
Alberobello, the best preserved Trulli town
Alberobello is seen as the capital of Trullo. It is the city where you can find the best preserved white-washed Trulli. We found it to be a beautiful place to roam the narrow picturesque streets with cute white houses at its side. I can call myself well travelled but I had never seen a place like this. It seems like a place which would only exist in the movies.
When I saw this place on the internet, I knew I didn't wanna miss it during my visit to Italy. It is extremely picturesque like no other place and easy to visit. You can roam the narrow streets and explore all the pretty corners which you will encounter on the way.
You can find enough places here to grab some food or a delicious Italian coffee. It is the perfect place for a daytrip from nearby places like Bari and easy to reach by public transport.
The town has many tourist shops and souvenir shops. It is very touristy, but we went in the low-season as it was already november. Therefore it was really quiet and peaceful. We had the whole town almost for ourselves. I wouldn't recommend this place in July and August as it would probably be very hot and extremely crowded.
Here you get a better view on how many Trulli you can find here in Alberobello
We also had a coffee at a rooftop terrace with a little view over the Trulli. The terrace itself was not so special and the coffee came in paper cups, but the view was quite nice and the coffee tasted good :)
They offer like every other tourist place lots of souvenirs but I thought this one is very nice, It is a nativity scene, but with Trulli
Here at this picture, you can see that there are quite some souvenir shops in the back.
Whenever I take a picture, it is usually because I see something that attracts my eyes and is an important part of the story. What I really like in this picture besides the trulli in the back, is the green which has such a great contrast with the white. The houses here in Italy often don't have gardens, but people still decorate their balconies or add green to the environment in other ways. I love it,
Thank you for passing by. Would you like to visit Alberobello? Let me know in the comments!
Regards,
Sascha