One Trullo, Two Trulli, A Beautiful Tree.

Soon after strolling through Bari's old town my Aunt suggested to show me the Trulli (name derived from Onions). I had no idea about what they were and why we had to drive for so long for them, but the end result made me ridiculously happy.

"I wish I was on a horse."

 

Alberobello literally translates as Beautiful Tree, it is a small town situated around the phenomenal old Trulli village. They were built a while back by brilliant folks who were very heavily taxed. According to my aunt, it was the local lord that would get taxed heavily and in order to cut down his and his people's losses he had a brilliant plan. Like today, the more prosperous a location is, the higher the taxation, back then it was more along the lines of how well are the people on you plot of land doing? Lots of healthy people and animals? Food a plenty? The houses aren't falling apart? KA-CHING.

Somebody was there to save the poor folks...

So the lazy/sympathetic/tax-disliking lord asked the folks to somehow move whenever the tax collectors would swing by. Thus the structure of the Trulli was born. The roof was entirely built of pebbles/flints from the farmed land (the Italian terrain isn't naturally a gods gift for planting olives, it's actually full of rock shards from which most of the Mediterranean region builts garden and plantation walls), layed out in such a balanced manner that in needed no adhesive.

 Most importantly, when the tax collectors were spotted coming up a mountain, the removal of a single rock would cause the entire roof of the house to cave in. People would grab their prized possessions, their animals and wander off into the nearby forest, greenery, beautiful trees, etc. Meanwhile baffled tax collectors couldn't understand why such hard times had befallen the region.

Wikipedia says it looked like this.

So basically they would leave thinking there was nobody left to tax. Nowadays they know better.
As we hiked up the hills, streets and pathways I fell in love.

However most of the pedestrian paths are steep flat marble steps. Italians have excessive amounts of marble which the use everywhere giving off a refreshing chill for hot summer and causing the walkways to become slippery hazards in any other weather. After tackling that we got to some of the most gorgeous views of the streets and shops. Most of the trulli are used today as houses, restaurants and tourist attractions. The famously painted symbols of various origins can be found on some of the roofs. The best known row of such branded huts on via Monte Pertica hide the most endearing shop.

The shop is owned by a lovely lady named Maria. She started the small business by selling handmade linen goods and expanded to general craft work from the region. Because of my relation to my aunt and my overly enthusiastic reaction to her shop she ended up giving me an adorable green sparkly travel bag for delicates and pjs.

The owner Maria Claudia and her work behind her.

She is so popular with Japanese tourists that they often invite her to Japan and the front part of the shop is decorated with photos of her own travel achievements and such gorgeous ceramic

Uncle and the owner Maria lovingly waving their hands around.

If you're in the South of Italy, Alberobello is definitely worth seeing. The history of the place is brilliant, people are friendly (as we see above), there is an absolutely fantastic restaurant that serves authentic Puglia-nese cuisine (my favourite cuisine thus far) which will make your socks explode. "Ristorante Trullo D'Oro". Warning: It's Delicious. Life will never be the same again.

More about food and a post travel tips in next episodes of Advanced Heroics.