Italy’s Alberobello Presents a Fantasy in Stone

It seemed like a Disneyland fantasy or, perhaps more appropriate for two visiting Angelenos, a figment of Ray Bradbury’s science-fiction imaginings.

The midnight moon shone down on the round Lilliputian houses surrounding us, bathing the structures and their strange conical roofs in an eerie, silvery light. As we tread the twisting flagstone streets, we half expected an elf or a ghost or two to pop out of a doorway. We were in Alberobello, a village in southeastern Italy, in the Apulia region on the heel of Italy’s boot. Almost due north of Taranto, the town is famous as the “capital of trulli “-- trulli being curious, beehive-like houses made of white-washed stone crowned with circular roofs of soil-colored slate. They are often built in small clusters, standing crisply white, with whimsical twisted chimneys and outside ladders leading to upper stories that are used as sleeping quarters.

There are about 1,500 trulli in this fairy-tale-like living museum. Some of the quirky domed dwellings--said to be descendents of prehistoric Middle Eastern shelters--now house the local grocery, butcher, souvenir shops and the like. Many have been occupied by the same families for centuries.

The day before our midnight walk, my husband and I had driven to Alberobello from Bari, a teeming seaport on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, and Apulia’s capital. The 45-mile trip took us southeast on Route S16 along the deep-blue Adriatic, then south on Route S172 through acres of almond and oak tree groves, olive trees gnarled and bent with age, and fields of vines laden with late-September, ripe-for-harvest grapes.

Alberobello is perched atop two hills separated by a deep trough. A cathedral dominates the modern part of the town in the north. The Rioni Monti (Monti District) to the south, where most of the trulli are located, is otherwordly--and beckoning. As we explored the district’s seven wondrous winding lanes, there was a sense of unreality, even without the benefit of midnight moon rays.

Cars are not permitted in the area and there were few pedestrians wandering about. The toy-like trulli seemed to huddle together, pressing outward, narrowing the twisting streets even more. The sky was a vibrant, almost artificial blue. Illuminated by the bright sunlight, the arcane white symbols drawn on the overlapping stones of the roofs--crosses, Cheshire-cat-like outlines, crescents, lightening-streaked stars--seemed to possess a nervous life of their own.

To our right, three black cats (a bad omen?) leapt around the chalk-white pinnacles topping the roofs, darting in and out of surrounding crevices. We saw figures approaching in the distance. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs would have been perfect scenic type-casting. Instead, a group of Italian tourists walked by, as fascinated with their surroundings as were we.

No one seems to know who first built the trulli (from the Greek tholos for a circular, domed construction), or why they are unique to the region of Apulia. Some say they are descended from primordial burial shelters--which also had pinnacles and mythological or religious symbols--that were erected by prehistoric migrating tribes from the Middle East and later by peoples from Asia Minor. We were also told that the trulli are structurally related to Babylonian sepulchral temples and the pyramids of the Egyptian Pharaohs.

Even the Sant’Antonio church at the Rioni Monti’s upper rim, where we started our stroll, wears a characteristic cap--a 100-foot-high dome. The church’s Spartan white interior is enlivened by statues of Mary and Christ with St. Francis.

The local shopkeepers were unfailingly friendly. As we entered a wine store, Nedda, the proprietress, greeted us effusively. She beckoned us to the back of the store and pointed to a ladder. After ascending the rickety conveyance, we found ourselves in a charming rooftop garden amid pink-and-white oleanders and geraniums and a profusion of portulacas, overlooking a veritable sea of trulli . The stark-white turrets atop the gray stone roofs, the hieroglyphs painted on the domes’ upper reaches--and the occasional television antennae--mingled in the distance like prehistoric cult objects.

We moved on and soon were in the heart of the Rioni Monti, among some 1,030 trulli capable of housing 3,000 inhabitants. (In the adjoining Rioni aja Piccola are 400 more trulli .) Although the area was declared a national monument in 1910, life goes on exuberantly. We watched two elderly women gossiping in front of the butcher’s, a trio of giggling teen-agers huddled together over a private joke and a young matron shelling peas before her doorway.

Nicola Sprobba’s family has lived in the structure known as Trullo Siamese since the 1500s. Legend has it that two brothers who lived there long ago fell in love with the same young lady. The one who successfully wooed her built a wall between his domain and his sibling’s and created a separate entrance in the back lane. Presumably, they all lived separately--but happily--ever after.

The Sprobbas showed us the trullo’s interior, while their children, Anna, 7, and Rosario, 9, hung back shyly at first but soon joined in communicating via sign language and broken English. Nicola fashions miniature souvenir trulli of ceramic shards and pieces of stone, and his wife, Lorenza, crochets brightly hued scarves that they sell (along with T-shirts, pottery and other items) in their souvenir shop. The parents sleep in a cupola above the store, furnished with a bed, a hanging lamp and a niche with a Madonna image. The children’s headquarters next door is cheerful but equally Spartan.

One of the earliest documents relating to Alberobello’s environs dates to 1100, when Roberto Decerano deeded the nearby Selva (forest) of Fasano to the Bishop of Monopoli. Nearly 400 years later, in 1481, Count Andrea Matta Acquaviva of Conversano received the Selva--and its numerous trulli --from Ferdinand of Aragon.

By 1635, there were more than 200 people living in the Selva’s trulli . Count Giangirolamo Acquaviva, the “Guercio (one-eyed man) of Apulia,” forbade the construction of houses other than trulli . The Guercio also stipulated that the structures be built without mortar so that they could be demolished instantly in case of a royal inspection (to collect taxes on each existing dwelling). Guercio was imprisoned by Philip IV of Spain in 1649--not for his unorthodox tax evasion, but because he rebelled against the Spanish viceroy that was then ruling Apulia.

After 300 years of feudal servitude to the Acquaviva family, the Selva’s then-3,000 settlers were finally granted their freedom by Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, in 1797. The citizens dubbed their town Alberobello (beautiful tree) for an ancient oak tree near which many legendary battles had been fought. The Casa d’Amore, the first house constructed of stone and mortar after Ferdinand IV’s decree, was declared a national monument in 1923. The landmark is still lived in, as is the Sovereign Trullo, the most striking habitation in Alberobello. The latter’s 45-foot dome, the town’s tallest, rises over the 12 trulli that the ediface encompasses.

At the end of the Monti District we came to Via Indipendenza and the Fiesta dei Santi Medici, celebrated throughout Apulia each September. Lining the street were 30 booths, at which everything from hardware items to artificial blooms, Benetton T-shirts to toy Peugeots was being sold.

Following the sounds above us, we climbed to the upper town. The Curso del Vittorio Emanuale, and neighboring streets leading to the cathedral, were decorated overhead with tall, lacy stands of white plastic and festive banners. The streets were thronged with the faithful in their Sunday best, listening to afternoon mass being broadcast over loudspeakers from the cathedral. The men wore dark suits and ties; some sported fedora hats. The women, also in dark colors, wore scarves over their heads. The younger generation was more casual in jeans.

Accompanied by martial music, down the cathedral steps came the procession: church officials, the mayor and local dignitaries preceded statues of Cosma and Damiano, the region’s patron saints, borne by priests. More VIPs and trumpeters followed. The crowd followed the parade down the hill and from there, as far as the eye could see, a double line of worshipers carrying lit tapers marched slowly up toward the cathedral. The candlelight mingled with the twilight glow, illuminating their rapt faces. It was an affecting scene.

At 11 p.m., after dinner at Il Poeta Contandino, we joined the crowd near the bandstand on the Piazza del Populo and listened to the band render the “Triumphal March” from Verdi’s “Aida,” a perfect amalgam of the religious and patriotic fervor, and spectacle, we had experienced earlier.

In the trullo mood, we chose to stay at the Dei Trulli on the Via Cadore, a short block from the Sant’Antonio church. The hotel’s 30 multi-coned, trullo -shaped bungalows of whitewashed stone (with mortar!) are connected in twos and threes. The habitations are set in a spacious pine grove surrounded by beds of impatiens and roses. Beneath our apartment’s three crowns were the foyer and a tiny tiled bathroom with shower, the prettily appointed bedroom and a dining room/parlor with red-brick fireplace. Simple but cozy for $160, double occupancy.

The hotel boasts a sizable pool whose odd shape is reminiscent of the symbols on the trullis’ roofs. My husband and I had dinner at the Dei Trulli’s restaurant the night we arrived, before our fantastic midnight walk. The meal included good antipasti, mediocre orecchiette with pesto sauce, lamb stew (mostly bones) for my husband, and “La Pignata” veal stew, a regional specialty named for the ceramic pot in which it was served to me. Dinner, accompanied by a hearty red Primativo wine from Turi, came to an astounding $135.

Far better, in our opinion, and much less expensive is Il Poeta Contandino on the Via Indipendenza. Dinner, in pleasant rustic ambience, was excellent: 10 antipasto dishes (including tiny marinated shrimp, delicious herb-stuffed mushrooms and two eggplant appetizers), super tomato-sauced gnocchi , roast chicken and rosemary-laced lamb (the specialty with which chef/owner Leonardo Marco has lured the locals for the past 12 years). We were the only tourists, which delighted us. So did the bill: $60 with wine (Brunelli dei Monticiano ‘83), and figs for dessert.

Primordial heritage and contemporary life are in Alberobello, and therein lies the town’s fascination.

GUIDEBOOK

Alberobello, Italy

Where to go: Alberobello is about 45 miles from the popular Adriatic port of Brindisi, and only about 35 miles from Bari. If your holiday in Italy ends here, you can turn in your rental car in both Bari and Brindisi.

Nearby: The trulli are not confined to the city limits of Alberobello; there are many in the vicinity of the town, visible from small roads and farm lanes. If you are visiting the countryside, take a short drive (about 20 miles) north to the Castellana Grotte (caves), where guides offer tours of the spectacular caverns.

Where to stay:

Hotel Dei Trulli, 32 Via Cadore, telephone locally 080-721130. Distinctive accommodations in a hotel built within ancient trulli houses; about $160 per room, double occupancy. There is a swimming pool and tiny park with play equipment for children. One of the houses has been made into a restaurant dining room.

Where to eat: Il Poeta Contandino, 21 Via Indipendenza, 080-721917. Excellent local reputation, attractive rustic decor. Regional specialties include grilled fish, a wide range of antipastos, homemade desserts; full meals about $20-$25 per person.

For more information: Contact the Italian Government Travel Office, 360 Post St., Suite 801, San Francisco 94108, (415) 392-6206 (before 1 p.m.).