uno trullo, many trulli
Bari, Italy (via Alberobello)
When you live in a field that constantly spews rocks, you use them to build your fences, your house, even your roof. I have enjoyed looking at how people use locally available materials to create their residences. I have particularly enjoyed seeing round buildings; buildings with no hard edges. From the gers in Mongolia to castle turrets in England and western Europe, and now to the trulli of Puglia. What makes one people build a square with their stones and others form a circle? I have no idea!
Local historians suggest there were at least 40 conical buildings gathered together as early as the fifteenth century. In 1654 Count of “II Conversano Giangirolamo Acquaviva” was forced to present to the royal Court of Justice appropriate justifications about the illegal dwellings in Alberobello. Having heard of a royal inspection, Giangirolamo gave the order to immediately demolish most of the trulli existing at that time and ordered the inhabitants spread in the woods. The result of the inquiry was positive for the Count, who then recalled the farmers and authorized the re-building of the trulli with the command to not use any mortar, just houses built stone on stone. It was not until 1797 that seven members from the community were able to ask King Ferdinando IV to liberate them from feudal bondage and recognise Alberobello as a town loyal to the Kingdom.
rural trulli passed en route to the trulli town
Getting to the trulli at Alberobello was no easy matter! Leaving the farm this morning we had no idea Mr GPS was about to take us on Italy’s equivalent of Cornwall lanes. The main difference was that these ones were not in such good nick.
They were just as narrow, and instead of hedges on either side, there were rows of olive trees and/or stone walls. More than once the trees brushed both sides of the van simultaneously. Passing oncoming traffic was an exercise in precision driving. Which turned out to be good practice for when we got to Alberobello. We drove straight into the centre of town, straight up to the basilica, right as morning mass was concluding and everyone was leaving in their cars. We could not have chosen a more chaotic moment to make our appearance in town. Nor a more chaotic place – there is no turning space at the basilica and you do not discover that until you have gone too far. Thankfully a well-meaning friendly rotund Italian jumped out of his car and wildly waved The Other Van away. He directed traffic behind us to back up and give as half an inch to turn in. He motioned for the first cars in the side street that he wanted us to enter to squeeze past us and then authoritatively commanded the rest to wait. We were out of the muddle. But The Bear Cave had to continue to the basilica and turn in the space that was not there! A mission they presumably accomplished, as they soon caught us up.
Actually, in between the teeny lane and the basilica-we-won’t-forget was a splendid drive through the vegetable garden of Italy. Over 70% of the entire nation’s produce comes from Puglia, this area down in the heel. This small region alone produces more wine than the whole of Australia! And it’s not difficult to believe. Hectare upon hectare of dry arid stony ground is covered with grape vines.
Just as much again is devoted to olives, and there were more peach trees than we have ever seen before too. Expecting to see huge market gardens, we were a little disappointed at their absence. Occasional fields of watermelons, zucchini and tomatoes came into view, but nowhere near what we had anticipated. How they grow anything is a miracle. The soil looks too dry, too inhospitable. In varying shades of brown – red brown in one field, dark brown in a field where it looks like topsoil has been imported to support newly-planted young trees, mud brown in another, through to a pale yellowish that looks more suited to making urns than nourishing fruit – the rocky soil provides a most unlikely home to Italy’s fruit bowl.
And in this soil the trulli also flourish.
Time on the road: need to check
Distance covered: need to check
Tags: 2008/09, housing, postcard: Italy
rayres
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