Alberobello – finally . . .

A long time ago (Shannon – when was your trip?) a friend posted a photo of herself and her husband in front of a trullo house in a region of Italy that I had never heard of, called Puglia. Ever since then, I have had it in my mind that Don and I had to visit that area . . . Some day. Well, that day has finally come.

Here we are in trulli country. And it is magical. As we drove from Matera (which once was a part of Puglia, but now is in Basilicata), we started to see these amazing little conical structures in the fields – once used by shepherds, or for storage or animals or even as living quarters. Here is the first one we saw, right in the middle of a field:

From then on, they were dotted all along our route to our next home away from home:

Needless to say, the place is amazing. Masseria Serralta is located just a few kilometres away from the hilltop town of Locorotondo – just far enough to feel like you are in the countryside. Although our landlady here could take a few pages out of Lorenza’s book (she actually chastised us for taking a couple of plates, cutlery and a small bowl out of her kitchen when our information book specifically said “if you use the kitchen, make sure you clean up after yourselves”). Turns out that our information book was actually supposed to be in the room with a kitchenette and she meant to remind people to clean their own dishes, but we didn’t know that. She made a huge and uncomfortable point that the things in the kitchen were “her stuff” and she didn’t want people touching “her stuff”. Later she realized that we had the wrong information book in our room, but there was no apology. Anyway – Don has forgiven her. I think she must be on the spectrum. If she is, I forgive her too. If she isn’t . . . I haven’t quite.

We had heard that Alberobello – a village of trulli houses – was very popular and that we should go early in the day to avoid total chaos on the tiny streets. We didn’t get there super early, but early enough to easily find parking, so that made Don happy. The symbols on the roofs are either religious, zodiac or luck – take your pick.

Octopus burger anyone?

On the other (obviously less visited) side of the main street from the trulli there are churches and regular shops – I wanted a photo of these amazing tomatoes, but three girls were in my way and Don was still walking, so I took it anyway.

After a swim, a snack and a nap back in our little trullo, we headed up to our hilltop town of Locorotondo. The old town is very picturesque, with a maze of narrow, winding lanes through whitewashed buildings.

The churches here dress their statues in magnificent robes and clothes:

It looks like I have used up my allotted blog space for today – stay tuned for more Locorotondo tomorrow as well as a good look at Martina Franca.