I have to tell you how excited we are to be in Alberobello, what a great feel Alberobello has about it, a quaint little town up in the hills off the east coast of Italy! I have wanted to visit here for ages because of the Trullis, these white washed, coned shaped rock roof homes are just so extraordinary! We left Lecce at 11.15am for a Rome bound train with only about 4 stops to Rome, but Bari was one of them so disembarked in Bari and caught a local bus to Alberobello as no country trains run on a Sunday, arrived in Alberobello at about 2.15pm so it wasnt too bad! We have fallen in love with it already! These homes are very unique to the Puglia area and it appears they were originally built the way they are because their king in the 1500s wanted to charge a tax on any permanent building so they built these without mortar so they could easily be taken down when an inspection also were used for storage of grain etc. Our B&B is right in the centre of town in one of the old Trulli houses, its beautiful albeit the
doors are very short and Johns head in contact a couple of times! Its beautifully decorated with quality fittings and the landlords are just lovely, they dont live on site every morning to prepare our breakfast which is fabulous fresh goodies! They have a wonderful terrace on part of the building which overlooks the main Trulli area of Alberobello which is great for the drone and also people watching, I am sure you can tell we are just so loving it here! On our first full day it had rained overnight, but the morning was fine to get around and have a look and do some shopping. In the arvo took the bus over to Martina Franca which is another little village about 14klms away, so pretty with loads of history as well. Tuesday it was birthday boys day, after a lovely breaky we headed by train to Locorotondo to have a look, its a lovely town high up on a hill with all the whitewashed buildings you can see for miles. Stopped for coffee before lunch and then a wine bar for a couple. Another lovely town in Puglia. Headed back in the arvo for
a rest and then some nibbles and a bottle of wine before we headed out for the birthday dinner. Our lovely hosts drove us to the station in the morning...they were another lovely family! An hour a bit to Bari and headed to our B&B for 4 nights...... that didnt last long issues with the property and the other people staying there, with Captain Kaos blowing a gasket so we only spent the one night there but did get around to see a lot of Bari that day! Gee we have been pretty lucky with all the different places we have stayed and only a couple not up to scratch! I was a bit sad coz I had booked into a cooking day and lunch with the pasta ladies who are in a street in Bari, they are quite famous for making the local pasta orecchiette, Nunzia is the one I was going to, she has some too. Anyway not to be and onto Barletta which is on the route of the Lecce to Rome train so caught the train from Barletta Sunday. The place we have in Barletta is to Bari. (similar price I might add)..it
is in beautiful old building made into a hotel, we have an apartment, beautifully decorated, very spacious and everything you would need for a longer stay. The town has a lovely feel to it and everyone is so friendly, when I say town really it is a city of around or so, much smaller than Bari, about 94,000, though Bari is an airport hub and boat port. Had typical Puccia here in Barletta for lunch it was delicious, its a type of bread/pizza dough from this region, like a roll but not stodgy, John had one with a burger in it and I had tuna and salad.....
