Tom and I were so sorry to pack up and leave our comfortable cellar apartment as it was one of our most favorite places to stay on our Italian trip. Before we left, we walked up the hill to Renza's store to tell her "Good-bye", and we had to thank her for leaving two bottles of local wine for us ! Her small store in the newer part of Ostuni sells fresh fruits and vegetables from "The Garden", items brought in by the local co-operative farms, and organic packaged foods, make up, and household products.
We promised to keep in touch, then it was off through the beautiful countryside to Locorotondo. LOCOROTONDO
Locorotondo (its name comes from the circular lay out of its city center) is a small town in the region of Puglia in southern Italy situated between Martina Franca and Alberobello in the Valle d'Itria, a green stretch of countryside dotted with the famous whitewashed cone-roofed trulli houses. It is officially one of the ‘Borghi più belli d'Italia’ (the most beautiful villages in Italy). As well as its picturesque appearance the town is also known for its wine production.
It’s believed that Locorotondo was first settled by the Greeks several centuries B.C with archaeological finds dating between the 3rd and the 7th century BC. The foundation of the town dates back to around 1000 AD as an unfortified hamlet under the jurisdiction of the Benedictine monastery of St. Stephen in Monopoli. The earliest historical records go back to 1195 and a document written by King Henry VI of Swabia referring to the place as ‘Rotondo’.
The estate of various feudal lords for 500 years, the village saw an increase in population, housing development, and the construction of the walls and castle. The Caracciolo family, Dukes of Martina Franca, and the last feudal lords, remained in Locorotondo until the beginning of the 19th century.
Locorotondo doesn't really have any specific tourist attractions; the town itself is the main sight. It was just a pleasant place to spend an hour or two wandering and taking photographs.
The historic part of town (the centro storico) is circular and perched on top of a hill. It's a whitewashed maze of little lanes lined with historic buildings, some humble and faded, others retaining rather grand baroque archways and architectural details. As well as the little rural trulli houses, which we could see outside Locorotondo, this area is also notable for another unusual type of building. These are houses with pointed gable roofs - uncommon in Italy - called cummerse. We saw whitewashed examples of these in Locorotondo's tightly-packed centro storico. It's a pretty and well-cared-for center, with flower pots ornamenting external stone staircases and balconies.
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele at the top of the hill is the nearest thing to a busy hub in the old town. It is a small square with a cafe and a tourist information office where we picked up maps and leaflets. There are a few churches to visit in Locorotondo. One of the most notable is the attractive Romanesque Chiesa della Madonna della Greca which dates to the 12th or 13th century and has a central rose window.
A panoramic street encircles part of the hilltop town center, and offers great views over the Valle d'Itria. A patchwork of field, vineyards and olive groves is dotted with the cone-shaped roofs of trulli houses and farms.
Locorotondo is known for its wine which is white and lightly sparkling. The wine is inexpensive and quite decent especially since Chris and I are primarily red wine aficionados. There are also local red wines and other whites, still and sparkling. The main wine producer is a historic co-operative called the Cantina Sociale del Locorotondo. It dates to the 1930s, and managed to obtain a prized DOC classification for the local white wine in 1969.
ALBEROBELLO
Alberobello, in the region of Puglia in southern Italy, is a strange and picturesque destination made a UNESCO World Heritage site for its unusual districts of trulli (there are more than 1.500), the characteristic white-washed conical-roofed houses of the area. We found it to be an interesting day-trip destination.
Trulli are small dwellings built from the local limestone, with dry-stone walls and a characteristic conical roof. It is a traditional and simple type of structure which we saw dotted all around this part of Puglia, sometimes in its most basic form used as a kind of shed amongs the olive groves.
The story behind Alberobello, once a town of trulli alone, is a typically Italian one – its design was a tax dodge to fiddle taxes and fool the authorities. The local feudal lord, Count Acquaviva, moved his peasant workers here to clear woodland and cultivate the land. To wriggle around laws and taxes, it was important that Alberobello didn't class as an inhabited settlement. So until 1797, when Alberobello was finally given 'town' status, the people had to live in trulli, which could be dismantled in a hurry when necessary.
The buildings are usually square and have very thick stone walls, constructed without mortar. The thickness strengthens the structure and also helps regulate the internal temperature. The roof is actually a dome, but it is almost invariably built up on top into a cone shape, topped with a spire. There is generally a central room, with additional living spaces in arched alcoves. Residential trulli are smartly whitewashed, and their roofs are often decorated with fanciful painted symbols supposed to have religious or superstitious significance. The fanciness of the spire decoration was something of a status symbol – it showed the builders' skill and thus the spending power of the owners. Frequently the houses consist of more than one roof – they are more like complexes crowned with several roof-cones.
Check out this web site which will give you a good sense of the uniqueness of the trulli in Alberobello - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iy0BrABEzo
The principal activity in Alberobello is wandering around looking at trulli. There are also a handful of small museums and plenty of opportunities for buying kitsch souvenirs and tasting local products. Walking around was enjoyable, but we were hounded by the local vendors sitting outside their trulli shops and bars. Although the area was obviously one big tourist trap, the prices aren't painful as there's too much competition – the owners tried to entice us in with all sorts of claims and promises. We were ‘offered’ colorful terracotta whistles (a local Puglia thing); some simple local ceramics; trulli snowglobes; sliding pens; and everything possible shaped like a trulli, in addition to silver jewelry. Many buildings contained tiny 'bars' where we sampled local liquors. Since we didn’t have the chance to stay in a trulli home, we accepted the low-key sales pitches and entered to have a look around and see some of the interiors.
The center of Alberobello is mostly composed of typical small-town Italian streets and buildings, with a few trulli interspersed among the buildings in a surreal fashion. Some older back streets are lined chiefly with residential trulli. The most picturesque parts of Alberobello, though, and the strangest, are the two areas composed almost entirely of trulli – over a thousand of them. Here the little white pointy-topped dwellings are clustered together like a hobbit town – felt like were in a movie set !
OUR ARRIVAL IN MONOPOLI
Our destination tonight is an AirBnB apartment in the Adriatic seaside town of Monopoli. It was only a short drive from Alberobello, but we got lost in the maze of narrow streets in the Old Town, once we got to Monopoli. Not only did we have to pull the side mirrors in, but we interrupted a funeral procession that was leaving the Cathedral . . . and we were going the wrong way !
Tom found a place where we could pull over, and we flagged down a lady and showed her the address that we were looking for. She knew exactly where to find our host, Paolo, as he is the owner of a popular restaurant no more than 15 meters from our apartment . She led me there, chatting the entire time in Italian. I couldn't understand a word she said. Paolo and I walked back to the car . . . he got behind the wheel and found us a free place to park in the Porto of Monopoli . . . right on the waterfront where the fishing boats were coming in. Our apartment for the next two (2) nights is just a short walk from the water, and the Castle, in the heart of Old Town Monopoli.
Tom and I were so sorry to pack up and leave our comfortable cellar apartment as it was one of our most favorite places to stay on our Italian trip. Before we left, we walked up the hill to Renza's store to tell her "Good-bye", and we had to thank her for leaving two bottles of local wine for us ! Her small store in the newer part of Ostuni sells fresh fruits and vegetables from "The Garden", items brought in by the local co-operative farms, and organic packaged foods, make up, and household products.
Alberobello, in the region of Puglia in southern Italy, is a strange and picturesque destination made a UNESCO World Heritage site for its unusual districts of trulli (there are more than 1.500), the characteristic white-washed conical-roofed houses of the area. We found it to be an interesting day-trip destination.
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