Discovering Puglia: Locorotondo & Alberobello

The idea behind going to Puglia came after I saw some years ago a picture from Alberobello and in that very instant I fell in Love :))) .. I knew from the beginning that this place will probably be packed with tourists as at least more recently it's listed in all the tops of beautiful villages, but I really wanted to see it. And yes it is packed with tourists, but who cares when you get to see these super ultra cute Trulli houses. 

We woke up in Bari and first we stopped at the beach. I won't share pictures, but I will tell you this: it is small and packed and not very pretty, so unless you really are in the mood for lying in the sun  for a while, better skip this part. From here we left to our first stop of the day where we aimed to have something to eat. 

Locorotondo 

"The city is known for its wines and for its circular structure which is now a historical center, from which derives its name, which means "Round place". It is located in south-east Murgia, deep in the Itria Valley, dotted with white prehistoric roundhouses called trulli." (Source)

The View

Before you enter the old center and the little streets pass by the Martina Franca Park. It offers a nice view over the Itria Vally. 

Chiesa Madre San Giorgio

"Built in 1790, the Mother Church of St. George is the most important worship place in the city. The building has a neoclassical facade and the gable presents a depiction in relief of the saint with a dragon and, at the two corners, the statues of Saints Peter and Paul. Alongside stands the majestic bell tower with four stone statues representing the three Marys and Veronica. The interior, on a Latin cross plan, has a 35-metre-high central dome, and a large chapel of the Blessed Sacrament holding 42 panels with scenes from the Old and the New Testaments." (Source)

The little streets 

The Restaurants & The Food 

Alberobello

"Is a small town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It has 10 735 inhabitants and is famous for its unique trullo buildings. The trulli of Alberobello have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1996." (Source)

The View @Piazza del Popolo

The Symbols 

The Trulli Houses 

I find it very cute how Lonely Planet puts it "tourists pile into trullo homes, drink in trullo bars and shop in trullo shops" (Source) 

The History of the Trulli
"The history of these very particular buildings is linked to the Prammatica De Baronibus, an edict of the 15th-century Kingdom of Naples that subjected every new urban settlement to a tribute. The Counts of Conversano D'Acquaviva D'Aragona from 1481, owners of the territory on which Alberobello stands today with the summer "domus" that was called Difesa De Le Noci on the border with the territory of the duchy of Martina Franca, then imposed on the peasants sent in these lands they built their dwellings dry, without using mortar, so that they could be configured as precarious buildings, easily demolished. Therefore, having to use only stones, the peasants found in the round form with self-supporting domed roof, composed of overlapping stone circles, the simplest and most solid configuration. The domed roofs or half cone for straw called the false dome of the trulli are embellished with decorative pinnacles that represented as many say the pinnacle was the signature of the master trullaro who did it or that restored and represented the pose of the pinnacle an exciting moment, the whose form is inspired by profane symbolic, mystical and religious elements that appear above all in the Fascist period." (Source)

Parrocchia Sant'Antonio aka Trulli Church 

"The church was built in the space of 14 months and was opened to the public on 13th June 1927. Such a fast operation was achieved thanks to the clergyman Antonio Lippolis (1886-1972) who entrusted the project to an engineer called Signorile Bianchi and to master De Leonardis. According to tradition the priest, outraged by the spreading of Protestantism, decided to erect a new religious site as a symbol against the heresies and this would explain such speediness." (Source)

Trulli sweets :)

And so at the end of the day, we had a sort of a Trulli overdose :P