Puglia towns: Alberobello

We could not leave Puglia without making a trip to see the trulli - the unique houses, famous in this region, with conical dry-stone roofs of limestone

You can spot these distinctive dwellings in the countryside here and there, where people have converted them into permanent homes - like these ones I spied in the distance from the car ...

but in the town of Alberobello you can see them in abundance

In Alberobello the trulli are all either inhabited (by locals or as holiday homes) or used as small shops, galleries or cafés.

There were quite a few tourists wandering the narrow streets, but the whole town is beautifully maintained and preserves its authenticity

The story behind them involves a duke in the Kingdom of Naples who was unwilling to pay taxes on the homes his subjects built. By removing a keystone, the house could be reduced to a pile of stones whenever the tax collector came round.

We had a late lunch amongst the trulli, our last day in Puglia before heading back north.

Alberobello, Puglia, Italy, September 2016

Puglia trip