After Matera, we headed northeast to Alberobello to see other unusual dwellings. Centuries old, the Trulli homes were originally made without any mortar. Stones were angled slightly inward resulting in a beehive-like structure that could support itself. It could take as little as a few hours to assemble the stone homes. The stone kept the inside cool in the summers and warm in the winter. The trulli homes can be seen scattered all along the region of Puglia, but in Alberobello there are about 400 trullus clustered closely together.
We stayed the night in one of these, and the next moring as we were leaving, an elderly woman right next door invited us into her house. She showed us around, requested we take photos. And told us her mom lived in the same house before her. She’s 87. (mind you, she only spoke Italian and didn’t seem to mind that we didn’t.) Then she asked us for some money. Lucky for her she was so cute.