A timeless charm. Alberobello, in the heart of Valle d'Itria, is like this: sleepy, whitewashed, soft, enveloping, as if it were a diva of the 50s.
An expanse of overlapping Trulli, embedded, clinging to a maze of narrow streets that climb between ancient districts: a landscape that has no equal anywhere else in the world and that should be seen at least once in a lifetime.
A landscape that we know deeply, from the most sunken foundations up to the highest pinnacles, chiancarella after chiancarella: how many times our hands of expert trullari masters have paraded, disassembled, rebuilt these houses whose origins date back more than 700 years ago. But this is another story, which we hope to tell soon.
Today, however, we want to take you to this village, nestled between sky and sea and olive trees, included since 1996 by UNESCO in the World Heritage List. One of the symbols, perhaps the most famous of Puglia. The area once wooded where the center of Alberobello stands - a unique agglomeration in the world with its 1500 Trulli - was until 1481 a fief of the Dukes Caracciolo of Martina Franca, then passed into the hands of the Counts Acquaviva of Conversano, who settled many peasants granting them some benefits, such as the possibility to build houses without mortar in order, on the one hand, to circumvent laws and taxes issued by the Angevins on new settlements, on the other hand, to exploit the abundance of limestone in the area.
A history that you can still breathe wandering through the alleys. Our advice is to explore Alberobello by being seduced by the magical and propitiatory symbols affixed to lime on the cones, by the embalmed streets where progress is that of hospitality, tarallini and free "good morning". Be enchanted by the intense red of the geraniums and the pulsing purple of the cyclamens that appear in every corner, on every step, next to the door.
There are two neighborhoods in which to stop, where the highest number of Trulli is concentrated: Rione Monti di Alberobello, where most of the Trulli are used as craft stores, and Rione Aia Piccola, with narrow winding streets, where instead there are essentially homes. Trullo Sovrano, the only one with two floors and a central cone surrounded by twelve smaller cones, now houses a museum. Particular is also the Siamese Trulli, with a double shape, and the Casa D’Amore, the first built-in lime in 1797. And still the Church of Sant'Antonio, also it (not even to say it) to form of trullo and the Basilica of the SS. Cosma and Damiano, a fulcrum of the religious history of the city.