Trulli, Madly, Deeply

Outside of the grand basilicas, the distinctive architecture of Puglia are the trulli--round stone houses capped by a conical roof. An apocryphal story suggests that their popularity stems from the Italian practice of tax evasion--it was quick and easy to dismantle a trullo, transforming a taxable farm building into an untaxable pile of stones when the assessor came around, for example. Whatever the case, a visitor can find quite a few of these distinctive little huts throughout Puglia, but their epicenter trulli is Alberobello.

(How man trulli/truly puns are there? Readers can try their hands in comments.)

I'm not going to write a whole lot about Alberobello, because I think Mrs. Werbenmajensen wanted to write about an award-winning meal we ate there and our visit with the gregarious Mimmo Palmisano in his wine/cheese/olive oil/regional delicacy shop. And because I forgot my manpurse during our day in Alberobello, I don't have good photos. But on the upside, I had my mobile phone, which takes video.

From the courtyard of the Trullo Sovrano:


An overlook of the trulli quarter:


A trulli street: