Alberobello, literally translated from Italian as “beautiful tree”, is a small town (and commune) located in the Metropolitan City of Bari, region Puglia , Italy. Though tiny (11,000 inhabitants) , it is home to the famous trulli houses. Most of them, preserved and restored, which are located in the Monti area , are now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How to get to:

Your best bet is to come via Bari – the city is served by an airport , as well as train station- either by train or bus. Both are operated by Ferrovie del Sud Est . To find their station (both train and bus) in Bari, you need to use the under-path in Bari Centrale and go past Binario (Platform) 10. Take the next exit and look to the left (if you used the under-path closest to the right hand side of the station).

FSE operates trains during the weekdays and Saturday and buses during Sunday. The price starts at 4.40 eur one way for the departures from Bari Centrale. You may purchase the ticket online or directly at the train/bus station.

Tip: if you plan to go to Alberobello on Sunday, buy the ticket on Saturday. The counter is closed on Sunday.

The trip – by bus – is 1h 50 min , technically. Practically , it took more like 2 hours and the scenery is not scenic until you exit Noci (so for the last 8 km only).

By car, the trip is about half as long because you can avoid going back & forth between the stops in each city.

The bus stops close to the train station. Coming down from the bus, with your back to its front, look ahead and start walking on Via Garibaldi. At one point there is a small piazza and to the left, there’s Monti area, with its 1030 trulli. The area is a signaled but only once you are close to it. We used the GPS from our cell to walk there.

What to do

Of course, walk on the streets up and down and back again. Some streets are “preferred” by the tourists – like the one leading up to the church – whereas some are literally deserted and you can play with your camera and selfies as much as you like.

Then you will want to buy some souvenirs, whatever you like. We are suckers for fridge magnets, which we also bring back as gifts.

There are plenty of places to eat and drink. An idea is to look for the ones where there aren’t tourists and go there. Locals do come to this area to eat and drink and you will be pleased with not sharing your meal with fellow travelers.

How the trulli are built and what are those symbols

Trulli houses are specific to the Itria Valley in the region of Puglia, so a train ride in the area will make your eyes happy. However, Alerobello is where most of them have been preserved and are still used. There are two areas of trulli houses but only one is the UNESCO site, the other area is also still inhabited but less touristy.

The first trulli in the area showed up in prehistoric times, but the oldest one in Alerobello dates from the 14th century.

And if you ask, yes, you can choose to sleep in a trullo. The price depends on the owner and how many people it can house. Book ahead if you are coming during summer.

Traditionally , the trulli houses are built using dry stone masonry (without any mortar) and the material used is either hard limestone or calcareous tufa. The walls are laid directly on the bedrock. The width varies from 0.80m to 2.70m , while the height is from 1.6m to 2m.

The pinnacles have many designs , ranging from disk, ball, cone, bowl or polyhedron, or a combination of these.

The Symbols include Christian – such as a simple cross or the Sun-Christ symbol, primitive ones – such as the radial cross – and magical ones – such as Saturn’s or Mercury’s symbols . The photo above was taken on via Monte Petrica where you can see these symbols. They have been repainted in the 2000s when the roofs have been restored.

Our experience

We visited Alberobello on a Sunday. We took the 12:30 pm bus – which arrived at about 2:30 pm in Alberobello. On the way back, we took the 4:30 pm, which arrived around 6:30 pm at the Bari Centrale stop.

We walked to the Monti area, following our GPS on the way there and following our hunch on the way back. Really, it is super close to the bus / train stop.

We spent about an hour walking the streets, visiting the church and taking a bunch of photos. We were glad to find some streets which weren’t overrun by tourists and that’s where we spent most of the time, including bought souvenirs from and ate a panini.

You can spend as much time as you want here but there isn’t much you can do aide from taking photos , walking and eating. There’s also a trulli museum, which we didn’t look for . We were hoping to make it to the olive oil museum but ran out of time (and didn’t want to catch the 7 pm bus back).

Booking.com