Plan for the day
Our plan was to drive from our “stay” in Tropea to Alberobello. It would be a terribly long drive of at least four hours and 15 minutes covering a distance of 340 km. For the night we had booked a “stay” near Puglia’s Trulli Towns of Alberobello.
Route for the day
By the end of the day
We started off from Tropea at about 10 am and reached Alberobello only at 3.30 pm. It was a five and a half hours trip with a short one 30 minutes coffee break in between. At Alberobello we drove directly to our stay to complete our check-in before visiting the famous Trulli Towns. Unfortunately before we could complete our exploration of the town it rain heavily and we were forced to return to our stay. The next day we made a second visit to another Trulli Town and had a great day.
Alberobello
By the time we reached Alberobello Trulli Town it was about 5.30 pm. The massive clouds in the sky were very grey and we worried that rain would be coming soon. There were two paid parking areas at Alberobello but we did not use them as we found free parking by an alley. We parked (free parking 1) our car and walked across the road and immedidately we saw some trulli of the town Aia Picocola.
Map of Trulli Towns at Alberobello
The trulli were very unique type of housing. They were single storey small white walled houses with conical roofs made by slates. The two trulli towns had about a thousand units and they were organised along several alleys/roads.
Trulli Town at Alberobello
It was about 5.45 pm and the place was very quiet. We were practically the only visitors around and we did not see any locals. We stuck our heads into the alleys of the trulli peering into darkened interior but could not see much. We were very sure that this was a “living” town where locals were still living in place and not a town created for “tourists’ pleasures” because we saw evidence of of a living environment.
A small courtyard with several units
We strolled through a couple of streets but before we had the opportunity to see more the rain started. Then the drizzle turned into heavy rain. There was no where to hide from the rain. No shops or shades for us to take shelter. We ran all the way to our car soaking wet!
Trulli town
The next day we were back at the Trulli Town again. We had not seen enough of the place the day before. Again we did not park our car at the paid carpark but found another free parking place some 200 metres away. We moved around and found a scenic point (co-ordinates: 40.783494, 17.238018) where we got a panoramic view of the larger of the two trulli town, Rione Monti.
Trulli Town – Rione Monti
Accommodation at Alberobello
We had booked a double room at “Art B&B Joyful People” from booking.com. We arrived at the “hotel” which was a big single storey house with a gated entrance. We drove our car through the gate and parked our car behind the building
The staff-in-charge showed us to our room. There were several double rooms and the staff let us picked one. Each room was painted and decorated with a different art theme. We chosed the room “Woodstock”.
Our “Woodstock” at Art B&B Joyful People
The cost of the double room was €57 per night. The room came with a ensuite toilet/shower, breakfast in the morning, parking on site and only 3 km from the trulli towns. On the website it mentioned that we could use the hotel outdoor BBQ area for meal preparation. Unfortunately the BBQ area was not available for use so we could not cooked our dinner!.
Ensuite Toilet
Common Area at Art B&B Joyful People
The “hotel” had a kitchen but it was not meant to be used by hotel guests. It was meant for the hotel staff to prepare and served breakfast. Breakfast was the standard Italian fare.
Kitchen and yummy breakfast