Day 67 Sunday 22nd October 2023 - Alberobello & Martina Franca
Day trip #2 from Monopoli through the Itria Valley to Alberobello and Martina Franca.
After a home made bircher breakfast, we left for Alberobello at 8:30 as we had been advised to beat the rush of tourists and arrive early. The drive through the Itria Valley was quite scenic, in contrast to our Puglia experience to date, which was pretty boring country stretching along the coast. A pleasant difference in landscape with lots of greenery, mainly in the form of olive groves or grape vines. After dismal weather yesterday we had clear blue skies and sunshine today !
Arrived at 9:00, found a blue line car park near the centre of town and started our exploration. The big attraction at Alberobello and indeed the Itria Valley are the trulli houses that are unique to this area. They started as basic farm houses to store grain and animals initially, then becoming dwellings for the peasants as well. They began to develop in the 14th century, built without mortar in a dry stone construction to circumvent laws and taxes on new settlements (by removing the keystone, they would immediately collapse and be a pile of rubble, not a dwelling).
Alberobello only came to life in the 17th century. There are 1500 trulli dwellings in the this town and only 5000 throughout Italy. Each conical roof top is a separate room within the dwelling, walls can be up to 2 metres high and from 0.8 to 2.7 metres thick. They are generally only single storey because of the weight load of the stone construction of the roof.
Quite a few have symbols painted on the conical roof, which can be religious or astrological in meaning. There are restrictions on being able to build any more new trulli houses, only the existing ones can be repaired and maintained.
Next stop Martina Franca - only a 20 minute drive away. As with a lot of towns we visit, the initial impression as we drive in is not so great. A typical Italian household lives in an apartment in a multi storey building with commercial shops, workshops or office at the ground floor street front locations. This is the case in all cities and towns including the big cities like Rome and Naples. So on Sundays and most Mondays, the ground floor street fronts are all closed off and pretty boring! The locals and tourists can be found strolling around the centro storico of the town enjoying the cafes, restaurants or smaller shops.
Anyway, Martina Franca's old town was busy with people, quite nice but not as quaint as some we have been to. We stayed here for lunch in the main piazza, sampling Orecchiette pasta and some grilled vegetables. Nice people watching, weather and location.
Had a quiet drive back to our home base for the night in Monopoli.
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