Monday June 17, Alberobello

The trulli houses in Alberobello...modern technology
mixed with the old!

By 7.30 this morning I had loaded the camp washing machine with all the bedding and towels, fed it €4 and left it while we had breakfast. Ian strung up a couple of clothes lines between the trees, I pegged out all the washing and within an hour it was all dry. It is so warm and the breeze off the sea did a great job.  And by 10 o’clock the bed was remade and we were on the road again.

Destination today was Alberobello in the Puglia region, to see the Trulli houses, a two and half hour drive. Enjoyed the route that took us firstly along the coast then through a large horticulture region and once again there were huge areas of plastic houses. Took a coffee break at a service centre on the motorway where I spotted a local fresh fruit stall, disappointed that I didn’t have my camera on me as the outside had huge strands of bright red peppers. He was selling a lot of apricots and gave us one to try. They were so juicy and full of flavour that we had to buy a bag.

The last 20 kms was on a lesser road, pretty lumpy but not too bad which took us through some “proper” farm land where the wheat had been harvested, straw had been baled and with stock outside, the first we have seen. Stone fences everywhere and lots of traditional trulli houses tucked in around the sheds. Quite an amazing site. We arrived without incident at the campsite recommended by Bonnie and Cliff with lots of sites tucked in amongst trees, just so essential in this hot weather. By the time we had a rather late lunch we put our feet up for a few hours before setting off into town when it had cooled a little…but not much! Heard that it was about a 10 minute walk, but for us it took a lot longer…all downhill and knowing all the way that the return trip was going to be uphill.  Within the town, there are evidently over 1000 trulli houses built from the local limestone, but today it is really just a tourist town with many of the trullis now souvenir shops. It was interesting walking around and thankfully not too many people about but as Renzo told us last night, the best place to see the real trulli’s is out in the country. Hopefully tomorrow morning we are going to get the bikes out and follow the bike paths around the country side. Wished we had our electric bikes as we walked back up the hill to camp tonight, it was after eight yet still so hot and we were saturated by the time we got back.

Poppies in the long grass under olive trees...summer in
a nutshell!

Late evening light on a beautiful trulli church.

Walked past this old trulli house in a field of
olive trees...the real deal!