How they lived

Architecturally, southern Italy’s most unusual sights are the dwellings of ordinary people, not the palaces or castles of the powerful.

There are the cone-topped trulli of the Valle d’Itria, the massive cave habitations of Matera and the whitewashed walled hilltop cities that can be seen from miles across the countryside. 

Albarobello

Trulli are dotted throughout the Valle d’Itria of which Ostuni (where we’re based) is on the edge. This area is verdant with vines and other crops, rich red soil and it is carved up with characterful stone walls.

The largest concentration of trulli is at Alberobello, which has about 1500 cone dwellings that first emerged here in the 14^th century. This town is a UNESCO world heritage site, listed as, “An exceptional example of a form of building construction deriving from prehistoric construction techniques that have survived intact and functioning into the modern world.”

Trulli of Albarobello

Trulli follow a drystone (mortarless) building technique which allegedly was imposed so that they could be dismantled easily to dispossess recalcitrant householders or to avoid paying tax on property.

Read more at the UNESCO site here.

The combination of windowless cone-topped houses and stone walls produces something of a fantasy landscape – they’re often described as hobbit homes  - and their distinctive silhouette is making them the stand-out symbol of the Puglia region. 

These days they tend to be used for upmarket accommodation rather than local people’s dwellings; they are starting to be purchased by northern Europeans as holiday rental homes.

Trulli are on sale at the real estate agents from 50,000 euros including a few acres of land, although they go up fairly steeply from that. 

Apparently it costs about 15,000 euros to reconstruct a roof from the piles of semi-caved-in stones you sometimes pass on the roadside.

We were tempted to rent a trullo when selecting our accommodation but in the end opted for being part of city life (more on high density old city Ostuni living later….)

Best food moment: fried zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta

Fried zucchini flowers

I’d eaten these at the Taste of London festival and thought they were delicious. At the fruit and vegetable store round the corner, where they see us every day, zucchini flowers are 3 euro a kilo. A kilo would buy you about 80 – total bargain. 

Crate of zucchini flowers

I stuffed half of the 20 I bought with a teaspoon of ricotta cheese and left the other half unstuffed for contrast, and because that phrase ‘life’s too short to stuff a mushroom’ was going through my head as the clock was ticking and Milly needed her dinner too….

I dipped these all in an egg wash then a combination of 1/3 flour to 2/3 breadcrumb with a bit of salt. Fried in a centimetre of olive oil then drained on paper towels. Sprinkled with a little more salt.

All made a divine, crunchy yet delicate bite – the perfect apertivo with a glass of crisp white wine from the heart of the Valle d’Itria (actually we had no wine and agreed we’d eaten enough today, so split a beer and called this dinner…Wine would have been more civilised.)

Biting into the slightly sour ricotta provided a lovely contrast (maybe life’s not too short to stuff a zucchini flower, just allow yourself a bit of time…) but it was delicious either way.