It’s almost impossible not to fall under the spell of this dreamscape where round, domed houses known as trulli rise from gentle hillsides. Alberobello will make you feel like you’ve stepped into the pages of a fairy tale, but this small town in Italy’s southeastern Puglia region is decidedly of this world, fashioned from limestone, surrounded by centuries-old vineyards and olive groves, and home to 11,000 residents. You probably won’t be able to resist the urge to make a crack or two about hobbit houses and how “truly” extraordinary they are, but the Alberobellese have heard it all and they are proud to show off one of the most unique townscapes on the planet.

Domed Wonders

Some 1,600 trulli line the lanes of Alberobello’s old quarters, Rione Monte and Aja Piccola, protected these days as a UNESCO World Heritage site. “How?” (as in “how on earth did this otherworldly place come to be?”) is the first question that comes to mind as you meander into the maze and get a close up look at so many strange-looking whitewashed houses with domed, conical roofs (trullo is from the Greek word for dome). Whimsical as trulli seem, they are borne out of practicality, built without mortar from rough-cut local limestone. Materials for the stone walls and corbelled-slab domes were readily available, and masons could assemble houses quickly and easily. Just as important, they could disassemble them simply by removing a single stone — as local lore has it, a distinct advantage if the Naples-based royal treasury decided to impose taxes on householders. With news of an approaching tax collector the entire town could be made to disappear in Brigadoon-like fashion.

Look Up!

Designs of the pinnacles atop the domed roofs are marks of the masons who built the houses, and slabs are often painted with Christian and magic symbols. Shopkeepers have added modern decorative touches of their own, few more exuberantly than Anna Maria Matarese. She’s filled her shop-in-a-trullo on Via Monte Pertica with fischietti, pottery whistles that include a Fiat weighted down with a family and their belongings. These days trulli also provide some cozily memorable dining experiences beneath their domes. Davide Girolamo of Trullo D’oro and other chefs around town serve delicious variations of cucina povera, or poor cooking, that make the most of local ingredients, though octopus served atop a bed of local fava beans and their other creations seem fit for a king.

One Dome, One Room

Most trulli consist of a single room beneath the domed roof. A peak inside a trullo, especially rewarding when this stage-set of a town mounts a historical reenactment, reveals the hardscrabble practicalities of trullo life — a large fireplace for heating and cooking, alcoves for sleeping, often a loft for storage above and a rainwater-filled cistern beneath the stone floor. A few break the mold with multiple domes and multiple rooms. Trullo Siamese was created when two brothers fell in love with the same woman and joined two trulli to accommodate their unusual living arrangement. Grandest of all is the Trullo Savrano, a complex of 12 little trulli surrounding a central, double-height trullo.

Into the Valle d’Itria and Beyond

Beyond Alberobello, the Valle d’Itria dips and rises across rolling hills that here and there are topped with irresistibly picturesque città bianche, or white towns: Ceglie Messapica, Cisternino, Locorotondo, Martina Franca, and Ostuni. Each will lure you into a few hours of aimless wandering, as will Polignano a Mare on the coast. Polignano’s narrow lanes open to seaside terraces perched above the crashing waves and a pebbly beach hemmed in by cliffs. Don’t be surprised if the setting makes you feels as though you’re taking flight into another realm — after all, Polignano’s famous son is Domenico Mudugno,  honored with a statue, and these vistas of sea and sky inspired his song “Volare.” Egnazia, farther down the coast, is an ancient Roman town bisected by the Via Traiana, the road that linked Rome with the port at Brindisi. One of Italy’s many transporting archeological experiences is a descent into Egnazia’s Tomb of the Pomegranates, from the 4^th to 2^nd century B.C. and entered through a stone door that still swings on its original hinges.

Among this abundance of sights, trulli steal the show. They stud fields and groves across the countryside, built on the spot from gathered stones to provide shelter and storage. Spotting one of these humble structures never fails to provide a world-class thrill.

For more information check out the Arteca website and the City of Alberobello website.

Stephen Brewer is an author of Frommer’s Italy and many other guidebooks.

Elyse Weiner is an Emmy Award-winning network news producer and executive, and the creator of iJOURNEYS audio walking tours of cities across Europe.

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I live atop a wind-swept hill just a few winding, country kilometers outside of Ostuni, la Città Bianca (the White City), in the verdant Valle d’Itria of the Alto Salento (Upper Salento), a sub-region of Puglia in southeastern Italy.

Together with my Irish wife, Orna, we built Villa Allegra, our little bright-white house with Santorini-blue shutters, bookended by two groves of young, promising olive trees, almost two-and-a-half years ago.

As lo staff (the staff), I’m charged with pulling and strimming weeds, rototilling, irrigating, pruning and fertilizing all the plant life, mowing the grass, and, well, tending to just about everything that’s not under the roof. Occasionally, I seek professional help because, in the words of Orna, I’m the “reluctant olive farmer.”

When not occupied with all the agrarian chores, which is not often, I like to put away my wellies and lace up my hiking boots and go for long treks around my quiet-as-a-mouse ‘hood with my neighbor Bob Van, aka “The Trullo Hunter,” and Orsino, his four-legged friend and, quite frankly, the best darn dog on the planet.

Even before I arrive at the front gate, Orsino is already whimpering, jumping up and down and wagging his tail like there’s no tomorrow. Evidently, his canine sensors are signaling that it’s time for walkies.

Bob’s been living in our neck-of-the-woods way longer than me, and knows all of the trails, forks, bends and every red-earth path that you won’t find on a map. In short, he knows the terrain like the back of his hand. He’s a natural trailblazer and leads the way under the Pugliese blue whenever the three of us step out on our self-proclaimed Van-Weber Expedition around the undulating green groves, vineyards and orchards — where we inevitably stop, if no one is looking, to have a degustazione (little taste) just to see how the seasonal fruits, nuts and berries are maturing — in our off-the-grid corner of the Valle d’Itria.

We’ve been trekking and foraging together going on two years now, about the same amount of time that it took the historic Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) to discover a route to the Pacific Northwest of the United States and return safely to the starting point along the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, MO, my hometown.

To give the Van-Weber Expedition a bit of purpose and structure, we always make it a point to go in search of abandoned trulli (trullo is singular), those iconic, centuries-old, dry stone huts with conical roofs and pajaru, the flattop or oval roof versions, that dot the rural landscape around our slice of paradise.

According to some archeological experts, the trullo is believed to be a direct descendant of the Greek thólos (dome, or cupola in Italian), a beehive-shaped burial tomb of the Late Bronze Age that was, over time, modified into dry-wall constructed stone dwellings that sprung up around the Mediterranean. These dome-shaped abodes gained a foothold in Italy when the Greeks came ashore and stayed a spell in Puglia. The trulli of the Valle d’Itria have been confirmed to date back only to the mid 14th Century.

Not as neat and orderly as the 1,500 fully-restored trulli found in nearby tourist-friendly Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and ground zero of the so-called “Valley of the Trulli,” our local, dry-wall limestone abodes — no mortar was used in the building of these original trulli nor their flat or oval-roofed cousins — are oftentimes hidden in plain sight, abandoned and pretty much decrepit. You just have to occasionally do a bit of bushwhacking to find them, and find them we do.

I’ve pretty much documented and catalogued each and every one that we’ve encountered thus far. I’d take along my drone to enhance the visual portfolio, but GPS tracking, for the moment, is a bit sketchy out here far from the madding crowd.

Bob’s a chatty guy and great company. Whenever we encounter another human being along the way, usually a farmer working the land whose property we’re crossing, we stop dead in our tracks, excuse the intrusion and have a chat. Initially, we’re mistaken for tourists (Bob’s a Belgian from the Flemish side, I’m a Yank) who’ve lost their way, but once we identify ourselves as year-round residents living nearby, barriers drop, smiles awaken and lively conversations with associated hand gestures ensue.

With loads of trails yet to be marked, and with the expert assistance of Bob “The Trullo Hunter” and Orsino, his faithful companion, I’m sure the Van-Weber Expedition’s visual collection of abandoned abodes around the Valle d’Itria will continue to expand.

Ciao for now.

How to get there: Fly or train to Bari then rent a car and explore the communities of the Valle d’Itria: Alberobello, Ceglie Messapica, Cisternino, Locorotondo, Martina Franca and Ostuni, along with the nearby coastal towns of Monopoli and Polignano a Mare.

Where to stay: Ostuni Palace Hotel & Spa, in the heart of the city at Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 218

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