We drove to Alberobello this morning, about an hour from our masseria. Alberobello is famous for its trullo buildings, with its trulli being designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It is believed trulli construction began in 1481, when the Counts imposed a tax on the peasants, so they configured their dwellings of dry stone, without using mortar, in overlapping stone circles that could be easily demolished. There are over 1000 trulli in Alberobello and thousands more in the surrounding area of Puglia, including at the Masseria where we are staying. Trulli are used as residences and they in fields, used for storage. We had fun exploring Alberobello!
We had a delicious lunch in Castellana Grotte, then went to Grotte di Castellana, the longest natural subterranean network in Italy. Discovered in 1938, the cave stretches over 2 miles long. We took a two hour tour in Italian from the cave opening, with sunlight passing through a large opening in the limestone, to the last “room”, called Grotta Bianca, an alabaster cavern hung with stiletto thin stalactites. The cave was cool and beautiful!
