Alberobello

The ultimate Trulli town

One of our outings was to go to Alberobello and see the Valley of the Trulli - the cone-shaped stone buildings that abound in this area. Alberobello has over 1,000! Personally I enjoyed the drive through the country-side and seeing the Trulli houses more spread out than the concentrated effect in Alberobello. Our friends Chris and Carmen Grant enjoyed the houses in Alberobello and even went into some that were open for tours.

The Trulli are round houses with cone tops that are found only in a few villages in his Region. They are built of uncemented stones, built row on row. At the top there is a decoration that has some rebellious or magical meaning. At one time it was thought they were built in the Middle Ages in accordance with the demands of Ferdinand I of Aragon. He declared that peasants were not allowed to build permanent homes. Since the stones had no cement, in theory they could be taken apart and moved. I find it hard t think of those stone houses being dismantled and moved, but I never lived in Medieval times!