Blogs from Alberobello, Apulia, Italy, Europe

Alberobello is trulli territory. Martina Franca area is trulli territory. There are hundreds. Most of the farms and very small villages are constructed in the trulli style. What is a trulli? From the outside you see a whitewashed stone hut with a conical roof. They are limestone dwellings of drywall (mortarless) construction made of roughly worked limestone boulders. The domed/conical roof is built up of corbelled limestone slabs (see instruction diagram). The walls are double skin with rubble core. Doorways and small windows pierce the thick walls. An internal fireplace and alcoves are recessed into the walls. The roof is also double skin with a watertight outer core. Water is collected via the projecting eaves at the base of the roof which divert water through channelled slabs into a cistern beneath the house. Ingenious. We left ... read more

I have to tell you how excited we are to be in Alberobello, what a great feel Alberobello has about it, a quaint little town up in the hills off the east coast of Italy! I have wanted to visit here for ages because of the Trullis, these white washed, coned shaped rock roof homes are just so extraordinary! We left Lecce at 11.15am for a Rome bound train with only about 4 stops to Rome, but Bari was one of them so disembarked in Bari and caught a local bus to Alberobello as no country trains run on a Sunday, arrived in Alberobello at about 2.15pm so it wasn't too bad! We have fallen in love with it already! These homes are very unique to the Puglia area and it appears they were originally built ... read more

Where is Suzy today? She is sitting on a sosta in Alberobello in Puglia the home of the trulli. The sun is shining . Things are back to normal again and life on the road good. Forgotten quickly are the frogs and the neighbours. A bit like having a baby. Painful at the time but soon forgotten. Why are we in Alberobello? What is the connection with James Bond, 007, Ian Fleming and Truly scrumptious? . If you have not got it then I better put you in the picture . Ian Fleming was the author of James Bond 007 . He also wrote silly stories a cross between a fairy story and a ripping good yarn. Got it yet. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. No we are not going in the hunt for 007 nor to ... read more

So much to say today. I went to Alberobello, where the locals figured out what to do with all the rocks that make up this land. They built Trulli, houses with cone shaped roofs all made of slabs of rock. I'd seenthe city, pictures of them and was sort of bored with the idea of a bunch of houses with cone shaped roofs. I figured I take a quick look and be on my way, instead I wandered from street to street in awe of these strange structures that were each completely different one from another. I know something about working with rocks since I always make walkways where ever I live using the local rocks. Rocks demand that you look at them and figure out which one will fit properly. Thus every house is different ... read more

We have just returned from a mid week escape to Puglia - the heel of the boot. Puglia is known as the 'deep south' of Italy and is a province less frequented by hordes of tourists than the more traditional destinations. We were lucky enough to visit in time to see the last glimpses of Autumn as most of the trees still had amber and red leaves. Although it was chilly, we avoided the rain and had clear blue skies the majority of the time. Our first stop was the town of Alberebello which is about 3 hours from Naples. Alberebello is famous as the home of the Trulli Houses. A Trullo house consists of a round base made of white limestone topped with a circular grey slate cone roof - a Smurf House! The houses ... read more