Alberobello
The Trulli Cones
Portrait
Trulli are built without mortar from limestone slabs, and the reason is fiscal: under Spanish rule the counts of Acquaviva let peasants build only dismountable dwellings, so that a tax inspection could be answered by pulling out a keystone and flattening the roof overnight. Fifteen hundred of them survive in two quarters; walk Aia Piccola, where people still live, rather than the souvenir side.
Nearby in the atlas