Yes, there is no typo, not trolls, but trulls 🙂
Using the opportunity to tread down the dry land, and not any average land, but South Italy, I decided to go to a cozy town Alberobello situated in hour and a half by train from Bari (according to the timetable, which is a topic for a discussion below).
There are trains almost every hour. One way ticket costs 4.90 euro. But it’s not easy to find the train itself. It is not TrenItalia. it is FSE, Ferrovia Sud Est. Couldn’t find them on Bari Centrale, google said that it’s not easy to find this trains. Thank you, google, I KNOW. Following some kind of logic I went to the next station, Bari Sud Est. Just 10 minutes walking under the sun 🙂 The only way to recognise the station are the barriers on the railroad crossing 🙂 The station itself looks like a small tobacco shop.
Ok, we are moving! And now about the timetable. According to it the train goes 1.5 hour. But no 🙂 It can be 2.5. The trains are quite new, the landscapes are amazing: vineyards, olives, poppies, haystacks…
Finally the first trulli appear among the cypress trees, and some time after we dock to Alberobello. By the way, they say that if you pick the wrong carriage you will not go to Alberobello, you will go somewhere else 🙂 I picked the first one, and the magic worked out – the train took me straight to the fairytale town.
There is basically one road from the train station. It goes up. At some point the trulls start to stare at you, shying and hiding behind the younger brothers, so I understand that it is not their den yet.
And suddenly I see.. No, not trull, but Basilica of st Kosma and Damian. Impressive as well, by the way! Trulls are not shying any more, but I am a bit busy with the Basilica. Pity that it is closed.
Then I don’t know why I took the street to the left from the Basilica. There were no trulls, but I found this:
This is a drinks dispenser. Still water and sparkling water. 5 cents a litre! Thanks, refilled my bottle with nice cold sparkling miracle 🙂
Ok, trulls, now it’s your turn!
So, what is the trull? Trulli (from greek τρούλος, cupola) are the traditional dry stone houses of Apulia region in Italy. Why dry stone? To avoid the taxes!
In XVI century there was one duke, and he didn’t want to pay taxes for the buildings, so he forced his peasants to build the houses that can disappear.
This kind of roof is based on the keystone. And with the help of three horses in half an hour the house turns into a heap of stones and one can pretend that there were no house here 🙂 The only dark side of it was that the peasants had to build the house again.
The most of the trulli houses is situated on two hills. Less on the first one, but that’s the place where the Basilica is. And Trullo Sovrano, which is a kind of trulli museum.
Sovrano is the only real two-storey trullo. Usually they have one floor and “penthouse” being the most warm place in the house was for the children, and they were using a ladder to get there.
Sovrano the only real two-storey trullo. Usually they have only a kind of “penthouse” for children, who use a ladder to get there. But Sovrano has a real steps between the walls of the kitchen and the living room. At the second floor you can find a weaving loom. Must be because it is a museum 🙂
And in the first floor everything is on its place. Big kitchen is where the big kitchen was, small kitchen is at the place of an old small kitchen 🙂
The backyard is very cozy as well, all jasemin and colors.
To get to the second hill you have to take the streetthat goes from the entrance of the Basilica. No way you should enter “Alimentari” shop on the square,it is dangerous for your heart and stomach 🙂
Somewhere on the way:
And here is the trulls den. Here they pushed back modern buildings, people and time.
The cats are the only who could resist 🙂
The trulli from all the photos all over the internet are here.
The signs can be religious, zodiac or other symbols that defend the house from disasters, enemies and taxes.
Don’t think that there are no tourists,it’s just my way to take photos 🙂 But the tourists don’t spoil everything there. Their senses are knocked by this super cuteness, they walk, smile and eat ice cream.
What else is interesting about trulli? They have “hats” on the top of the roofs. This is the architect’s signature, they are different. And there are weather vanes as well, they turn the air conditioning system. On the left roof at the next photo.
At the end of the XVIII century the authorities tired to fight with the ghost villages and stopped taking tax money from the trulli owners. But the habit of building was a life till 1925, when it became prohibited to build them. But it’s not prohibited to restore and use them, so we can come to Alberobello end enjoy this gnome-like little houses, after all more then 1400 of them are situated in this area…
You can smell linden, roses and jasemin…
Eat cherry from the tree hidden deep in this side street..
Try local thick liquors by “my mother makes it all her life” brand, find wine for 1 euro a glass (not small glass at all) and sip it, watching the man making small trulli for souvenirs…
Try to avoid Martinucci confectionery and fail, because this smell of shortcrust pastry and almond should be prohibited:)
And just get lost, find the way, shoot a lot of details, cuddle the cats, try to move one of the stones (who knows, maybe I am three horses). And fall in love.
On the way back I realized why the trains go so slowly. Serbian couple in our carriage asked the driver to take their five years old son to the cabin. And friendly driver not only put the kid on his laps, but also showed how to drive the train and let him hoot! According to the faces of everybody in the carriage, all of them had a childhood dream to hoot on a train 🙂
The train arrived to Bari Centrale, and now I know where do this trains hide there. Look: go through the tunnel that goes to the platforms, till the very end, and you will find your dream there. Maybe they will let you hoot 🙂