Trulli a Great Day in Alberobello!!

Wednesday October 20 was a picture perfect day in both Martina Franca and Alberobello, our destination for a day trip.  High of 21C.  We walked to the train station about 20 minutes away and then hopped on the 11:41 train for a 20 minute trip to Alberobello.  2.20 euros each for a return ticket!!

Martina Franca train station

Not many people on the train-- one has to be masked, but vaccines are not required on Regional trains, only Intercity trains

Alberobello train station (a similar look to Martina Franca's station)

Alberobello (literally "little tree") has a population of around 11,000 and is famous for its unique trullo buildings (plural trulli).  UNESCO added the trulli of Alberobello as a world heritage site in 1996.  Trulli are small whitewashed drywall buildings with a circular shape and a distinctive pointy roof made of flat grey bricks.  They date back to the 14th century and are unique to this part of Puglia.   At that time, King Roberto D'Angio' gifted this land to the Counts of Aquaviva of Conversano, who quickly moved their people there, causing a need for new houses.  The counts wanted the houses to be built as temporary residences so they could be quickly dismantled.  This allowed them to avoid paying the land tax that more permanent buildings would have required under the law of the King of Naples, the ruler at the time.

We walked into town passing the Basilica Dei SS. Cosma e Damiano Medici.  In 1635, a small chapel was built on the site.  The present building, standing in the same place as the older chapel, started to be built in 1882.

Very imposing Basilica

Bust of Pope John Paul II in an alcove

The main square in Alberobello is Piazza del Popolo.  The City Hall is on one side, a War Memorial on the other.

City Hall

Piazza del Popolo- 1922 (top) and plaque noting the city's UNESCO status (bottom)

Fountain

War Memorial

There was an amazing lookout spot very close to the square, where one gets a view of a large section of Trulli.  There are two neighbourhoods of Alberobello with Trulli.  Rione Monti is the more touristic with many stores, restaurants and souvenir stores in the trulli.  Rione Aia Piccola is composed largely of trulli residences and vacation rentals.  There are over 1400 trulli in the two neighbourhoods!

Trulli everywhere

Another view

We headed into the first of the two Trulli districts.  The closest was Rione Monti, which happens to be the one with mainly souvenir stores, some restaurants and a few residences.  This area had a fair number of tourists, but there were still a number of quiet streets.

Walking down stairs into the Monti trulli area

Many have unique protective symbols on their roofs

Alonso in front of a trullo

Moi aussi - soaking in the bright sun

Trulli with markings

They're everywhere

We stopped for a moment at Martinucci, a pasticceri in operation since 1950.

Many Pugliese treats (even a vegan one for me)

Alonso had a Pasticciotto with lemon cream.  I had a vegan treat with olive oil and a filling.

Yum

It is a bit like Disneyland, but these trulli are quite amazing

Signs on the roofs- part of a group of four

This group of four were very striking

A residential part of Monti

We walked to the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua (Trullo Church) at the top of the Monti area.  It is a large trullo used as a church constructed in 1927.  The traditional dome of a church is replaced by the distinctive trullo cone.  

Outside of the Trullo Church

Inside

Another look

God's Trullo

We then decided to go for lunch at a restaurant located in a square just behind the Basilica.

Alonso walking up the steps from the Monti area

We made our way to Trattoria Terra Madre, which was located in Piazza Sacramento, a very quiet Piazza a few streets behind the Basilica.

Outside of the Trattoria

We had read that the restaurant had a garden where it grew its vegetables and fruit.  We were totally amazed by the size of the garden beside the patio where we were going to have lunch.

The amazing garden right beside the patio area

Alonso with the amuse bouche of a pumpkin soup

Looking back into the small restaurant

Gorgeous home-made orecchiette with tomatoes and pecorino cheese (for me) Alonso had the same dish with the local cow cheese.

Cin Cin!

Very relaxing lunch

A gorgeous pomegranate tree in the garden

We could have lingered on the patio for hours--- very quiet and almost all the diners were Italian speaking.

There was a historic trullo in Piazza Sacremento, close to the restaurant.  It is called Trullo Sovrano, meaning "sovereign" as it is one of very few trullo built on two floors.  It was built during the 18th century, on behalf of the priest Cataldo Porta (1744-1809), which was why it was originally called the "Court of pope Cataldo" (in Alberobello dialect, 'pope' stands for 'priest').  It had other uses over time, but has been a National Monument since 1930, for the uniqueness of its architecture.

Trullo sovrano 

We walked back to the second neighbourhood of trulli called Rione Aia Piccola.

Planters on the rooftops

We stopped for a photo of Casa Lippolis, named after Vitonfrio Lippolis, the first archpriest to be the parish priest of Alberobello.  He had it built towards the end of the 18th century to use as his private residence. 

Casa Lippolis

More residential trulli

One of our favourite residential trulli had amazing sculptures on the roof and a trullo dog house!

Alonso sitting next to the Trullo dog house

Th dog house trullo-- with a porcelain dog and a little cat in the window

Another residence

There was a small section of trulli that were cordoned off.  These were 'ancient' trulli that are uninhabitable, but give a sense of where people lived in the past.

Ancient uninhabitable trulli

Another more modern residence

We walked back to the main square and the lookout before heading back to the train.

One more picture back at the lookout

We caught the 4:55 p.m. train back to Martina Franca and walked back to our apartment.  We stopped to buy some fruit at one of the stores that opens after 5:00 p.m.   We also bought some focaccia at Angelini, the bakery near our apartment.  We were going to have a light dinner after our substantive lunch.

Very nice vegetables-- lots of local veg and tomatoes from Sicily

Just fruits and veg here

I had to take a photo of the wonderful butcher store where we bought chicken yesterday

We really enjoyed our time in Martina Franca.  It is a beautiful city with lots to see and do and it makes a perfect base for a day trip to Alberobello.  If we had more time here, we would probably have visited at least one other town in the area.  On Thursday, we take the train to Lecce where we will be staying for the next five days.