The first time I ever caught a glimpse of the trulli was when I was ten I think. I was watching my favourite show on Discovery Kids: My beautiful house which featured cultures from a different country in each episode. The show had three parts: Music, animal and home of that respective country. The day featured Italy. That was the very day when I fell in love with Venice, its carnival, spaghetti and of course trulli. I never knew that half an hour of television during childhood would affect me so deeply.
When we were planning our Italiano viaggio, we were in a fix as to what all to include in 14 days. I could spend a month in Italy and still not be satisfied. My partner had a different agenda, while I was adamant on few places (with a few common cities like Venice, Florence and Rome). He insisted on Naples and Amalfi Coast while I was stubborn on Cinque Terre. However there was one place which hubs was dead against (because of odd location) and I was very sure of: Alberobello...The land of Trulli. After watching the melodious song of the movie Bachna E Haseeno, I was dead sure that I had to visit it.
Alberobello is a tiny town in the Puglia province. It was far from all the places we were visiting. The only way to reach there was to go to Bari, the capital of Puglia and then take a train to the land of trulli. It took 10 hours to reach Bari from Venice. That evening we explored Bari, which seemed a different world than rest of Italy. The next morning, we took a train to my dream land.
Trullo is a small hut built of stone, the roofs of which are made of loose stones. The plural is called trulli. These huts were used to store grains. Sometimes they were used for living also, the stone walls and roof provided coolness during summers and warmth during winters. It is believed that the Apulian people built these to evade revenue. Whenever there used to be a raid for taxes, they could dismantle the entire trullo and go somewhere else.
The trulli are found only in Alberobello in entire Italy. Now its a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I am really lucky that I could fulfil my wish of visiting this place.
There are two villages mainly: Riene Monti and Aia Piccolo. Riene Monti is larger and is bustling with tourists. If you want solo pictures, you have to be really early to reach there. The views from Aia Piccolo of Riene Monti are spectacular. I could spend an entire day there but we had a flight to catch back to Rome. So we had lunch quickly. I could not enjoy my grilled sea bass and had to rip it off with my fingers for faster devouring. Others were staring at me in shock! We Indians eat fish with hands only!
It was the best possible conclusion to our Italian Trip!
Skirt: Forever 21
Top: Forever 21
Blazer: H n M (Italy)
Purse: Jabong.com
Sunnies: Forever 21