Alberobello

Alberobello sits in the Valle d'Itria, forty-five kilometers southeast of Bari. Two quarters of the town, Rione Monti and Aja Piccola, hold more than 1,500 trulli: limestone cones built from corbelled drystone, with conical or pyramidal roofs piled course by course without mortar. The technique is prehistoric and still in use across the Murge, but nowhere else is the density and preservation what it is here.

The Counts of Conversano enforced drystone construction on their tenant farmers to dodge a Spanish viceroy's tax on permanent settlements: a building that could be dismantled in an afternoon did not count as a town. UNESCO listed the trulli in 1996. Some are houses, some are shops, some are inhabited by the same families that built them. The Trullo Sovrano, the only two-storey trullo, was built around 1750 and now functions as a small museum.

From Bari / Brindisi (BRI), about 1h 9m by car.

Naples / Salerno (NAP) is about 4 hours away.

By car from the centre of Bari 57 minutes, Lecce 1h 31m or Salerno 3h 43m.

There is a railway station in the comune, so you can arrive without a car.

Coming from Bari?

Coming by train into Taranto? Alberobello is about 52 minutes away by road.

Every town within reach of Bari / Brindisi airport.