Trulli Huts in Alberobello

The town of Alberobello

On our return from Gallipoli to Montemiletto we travelled inland through the region

Passed many old
Olive tree plantations

of Apulia to the town of Alberobello that A&R had as a "must visit" on our trip.
Alberobello is a small town full of Trulli buildings which history says were first built back in the 14th century. The region is formed on limestone bedrock, which has no permanent surface water as any water just flows through the limestone and out to

One of the beautifully paved streets

the Adriatic sea. Trulli huts are dry stone rural buildings that were normally built on top of cisterns that were dug out to contain any rain water that fell. The stones removed to create the cisterns were then used to build these amazing huts without any cement or mortar on top of a supporting lime-mortared dome floor.
The existing Trulli buildings that we saw date from the 18th century, and a lot were renovated in the 20th century to attract tourists and offer an alternative accommodation to normal hotels. The majority of what we saw were souvenir shops all selling very similar items. On top of the Trullo cone are pinnacles of differing shapes representing the signature of the different Stonemason that built that particular Trullo. With all the buildings painted with a white wash, the town appeared very attractive and clean.

Rico contemplating buying a Trullo home??

There are various stories on why they were first created one being due to high taxes on property in the area of Puglia, the Trulli's were built so they could be quickly dismantled when tax inspectors were in the area. Seems like a lot of work!

Many souvenir shops

There is plenty of evidence that they were built for field workers / animal shelter or for storage as we saw many all through the area but not in the same condition as the ones in Alberobello.
Even the Agrifarm we found to stay on that night as we travelled through the Alta Murgia National Park (Bill found by chance as we travelled through the very bare and dry national park) had quite a few over the property that the farmer was using for storage.

Our park for the night with
Castel Del Monte in view

The farmer & his wife spoke no English, so once we made this clear with each other, he then went on to talk for sometime about somethings that we will never find out what he was on about. We did do a lot of smiling. He eventually told us with lots of waving of hands to follow him, which we did to an area to the side of the main farm home (this also housed a rather large restaurant that looked like it would be used for functions- way out here in the wop wops - but not open tonight.)   Once he trampled the grass a bit we could see he had power points installed, so we were able to set

Another reno job Bill?

ourselves up for the night. His signage hadn't been that great to find him so I gather that may have been part of the reason for being his only guest for the night.
It's funny with all the lack of understanding between different cultures, the money is always easy to understand :) He pulled out of his pocket what it was to cost us for the night, and although basic services, it was a lovely rural setting and at 15 Euro we were very happy. And it was very peaceful with the bonus of a breeze all night making it a comfortable night to sleep. We had the view of Castel Del Monte on the horizon for us to focus on for our visit in the morning.

A few of the many Trulli buildings on the farm.