Travel Italy
The town of Alberobello, Puglia.
Hidden Puglia
Otherworldly houses, wild beaches, and Baroque architecture await visitors By Tim Johnson
T
hey were weird and strange and felt somewhat otherworldly. Approaching them on foot felt a little like discovering an alien village in some outer-space sci-fi movie, not a UNESCO-protected settlement in the southern part of Italy. Climbing a small rise, the details of the tiny dwellings became clear—round, white-washed base with a conical roof, some splashed with symbols of good luck. All of them were hundreds of years old. Built of dry stone and clearly crowded for even a single-family, why would anyone choose to live in such an odd dwelling? The experts disagree, but my guide told us the prevailing theory—that it all had to do with taxation. These houses, known collectively as “trulli,” were built to be taken down quickly. Generally erected in remote locations, residents would get some advance notice when the tax collector
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was approaching, and he couldn’t charge them for what wasn’t there. “Just by pulling out a few stones, they could collapse them, then rebuild quickly when he was gone,” she said with a small smile. There’s plenty to love in Puglia. It has the longest coastline of any Italian region, and is dotted with picture-perfect Mediterranean beach towns, ancient buildings set right on the rocks, with clear aquamarine blue waves crashing into a white foam below. Wild country, too, with an abundance of natural spaces to explore, such as Gargano National Park, where rugged cliffs, islands, and natural archways rise to one of the oldest pine forests on the continent. You’ll find a rich and textured history in Puglia. Exposed to the trade winds, many peoples blew through the area over thousands of years of history, from Mycenaean Greeks, a bronze age culture that formed one of Europe’s first so-
ITALY Bari PUGLIA
The Puglia region is home to 13 Blue Flag beaches.
Lecce
