This time we're in the magical city of Alberobello, best known for the typical whitewash
stone huts with conical roofs called Trulli. Let's find out more about this fascinating place.
It's pretty compact and best visited by car, the city is about 55 minutes drive from Bari,
you can also take the train from Bari Central to Alberobello in under two hours. You can
check the train times and ticket prices at this website. There are plenty of places to park around
the city centre and we paid six euros to park for a day, not that we needed all that time.
Whilst you can see a trullo house, trulli being the plural
all over the Puglia region. Alberobello has the largest concentration with around 1,000 trullis.
Most of them have been restored and are being used as restaurants, souvenir shops
and to offer unique accommodation for tourists who are looking for an authentic experience. Although
i would argue that this area is so touristy you're better off looking for a trullo outside of the
city like we did, and you can see our experiences staying in trullo overnight in our next video.
So we are here in the middle of august and i don't think we could have picked a busier time to come.
Obviously the Italians are on holiday this month and so it makes it a very busy period. Everybody
is out viewing the tourist attractions and of course this is probably one of the most popular
places to visit and so everybody is here today but we'll work our way around and see how we get on.
The most touristy part of Alberobello is the Rione Monti district on a hill facing the modern town
centre. There are several narrow lanes sloping upwards with others winding across the hillside.
This is where most people come to take their instagram photos and it's very pretty.
It's also where you'll find most of the shops and bars. Vendors welcome you in to view their local
ceramics, trinkets and jewelry and in the tiny bars you can sample local wines and liqueurs.
Dry stone mortar-less dwellings have been around for thousands of years, you may recall the beehive
huts being very similar in our Dingle Peninsula, Ireland video. They started to appear in
Alberobello in around the 15th century. They are made of limestone blocks found in the region and
they were really designed to dodge taxes from the local authorities. Should someone come along and
try and impose a tax they would just knock down the trullo and then rebuild it somewhere else.
So all the different trulli buildings have a different top to them and that denotes who
actually made them and on some of them you'll see like a weird kind of pattern on the side,
sometimes a cross, sometimes an animal or whatever and they were there
put there to protect the inhabitants of the trulli.
So Alberobello is a world heritage site and you know it's so busy today we're actually
not really enjoying walking around because there's just so many people. You really can't get a good
look at the place we may have to come back say in the evening or something and hope it's a bit
quieter but as i said before we are right here in the italian holiday season in august and so
i think it's gonna be busy all the time which is a bit of a shame. So
you may want to pick another time to come because it is so busy today it's incredible but
we'll keep trying to show you what we can but it's just hundreds of people.
Everywhere
There seems to be two kind of trulli parts, there's one on one side of the road and one
on the other. We're on the side which seems a little bit less crowded and touristy and
it seems to be more kind of holiday rentals, so you can come and stay in a trulli and this
side ,and then the other side small kind of shops restaurants a couple of bars but this side's nice
and you can walk around freely all the streets taking your pics and yeah just a lot quieter.
Next to the church is Belvedere St Lucia this is a great viewing platform giving you superb
shots of the rooftops on the Rione Monti side of town. So don't miss,
this we'll put a link in our description for you along with other places that we've mentioned.
Around the main tourist area there are several restaurants and pizzerias,
some in trullis and at least one with an outside terrace. On thursdays there's a great fruit
and veg market and you can buy loads of local produce like watermelons or a punnet of cherries.
We had intended to head back one evening as we were told it's magical with the lighting
and vibe but other exciting things on our Puglia tour kept us occupied.
The best way to experience trulli is to stay in one and next time we'll do just that.
Join us for a magical experience something you should definitely try and do on your trip.
Remember to subscribe, so you don't miss anything and we'll see you on the next video.
Happy travels from the Memoryseekers!