The Trulli Houses of Alberobello.

It was a long day. We started on the Amalfi Coast, drove to Matera for a few hours, next to Alberobello, then finally to our hotel in Taranto by the sea.

Our visit to Alberobello in the Puglia region of Italy allowed us to visit the Trulli homes the region is fabulous for. (They are famous for olives, producing 60% of Italy's olive oil.)

The trulli, limestone dwellings, are remarkable examples of drywall (mortarless) construction. They were built by peasants around the 14th or 15th century. An edict of the Kingdom of Naples imposed tributes to each new urban settlement. The ingenuity led the people to conceive of buildings that could be demolished with ease, in fact when the king’s delegate was about to collect taxes, it was enough to remove the keystone and here the houses were transformed into piles of stones. One conical room or feeling is a trullo. Usually they interconnect more than one to make a home. Trulli is the plural of trullo.

It's been a fascinating day, seeing first the cave houses at Matera and then the trulli houses in Alberobello. Our hotel tonight is right by the beach at Taranto but there's not really time to enjoy it! It's about an hour from Alberobello but is closer to tomorrow's ferry.Read more