Putignano to Locorotondo

November 13, 2024

Alberobello

Today was a short day but we made it even shorter by a navigation error. I am the only one with active maps on my Garmin so either I made a mistake or the route did not go through the town of Noci as I thought it would. We were never off the purple line unless it corrected itself when I wasn’t looking. Once we discovered the error we were 7km one way back to Noci and since we wanted lots of time in Alberobello we decided to keep going. It was not a bad choice since it gave us a good 3hrs to walk around, do a little retail therapy and have lunch. Tonight we are in our own Trulli at the Leonardo Trulli resort outside of Locorotondo. I specifically asked to stay in one of these since they are part of the culture in the region. The resort was once a farm and all of the Trullis were for the animals. They have been fully renovated and a bathroom has been added on to the unit. The walls are at least 3ft thick which was designed to keep heat inside in the winter and the heat outside in the summer. Tim took a short video but unfortunately I can’t load into the blog but it is on Facebook.

Trullis are unique to this part of Italy. Nobody really knows why they exist but one theory is that were built to avoid taxes because they could easily be dismantled. They are made with layers of stone and dry masonry (not mortar or cement). The width of walls can vary for 2.5 - 9 ft thick. The one in our room is at least 3 ft. The walls are straight for about 6 ft and the cone begins. The top often has a symbol of some type on it.