The Vallee d’Istria, located between the towns of Putignano and Martina Franca in the southern region of Puglia, is extraordinary. It is the home of trulli, strange-looking round white buildings with conical roofs that are found nowhere else in Italy and some say, no where else in the world.*
The trulli are protected by Italian law as national monuments. They are as much a part of this striking landscape as the rolling red earth, olive groves, vineyards and dramatic sky.
To construct a trullo, circles of gray stone are piled to a pinnacle atop whitewashed cylindrical walls. The stones are held in place by lateral opposition and gravity, but not by mortar. Sometimes the roofs are painted with white religious or folk symbols.
The archaic house form is of an early megalithic civilization. They are related to the Balearic, talyots, the Sardinian nuraghi and the sesi of Pantelleria. Despite the invading armies and the hazards of time, this architectural form has survived in Italy almost without change since the second millenium B.C. It still serves the inhabitants well.
Interested in Pugliese cuisine?
I Trulli Restaurant and Enoteca
122 East 27 th Street
Manhattan
+(212)-481-7372
Owner: Nicola Marzovilla
Chef: Mauro Mafrici
Pasta Maker: Dora Marzovilla
Sommelier: Charles Sciciolone
Cuisine of Puglia.
Excellent and well chosen wine list. Also, consider the wine by the glass program. It offers a well chosen selection of Italian wines and grappas.
Al Rifugio Pugliese - I Muciaccia
via Costanza 2
Milano
+(02)-48-00-09-17
Buratta, ricotta, mozzarella cheeses, a unique selection of salame. All products of Pugliese.
Closed: Sunday
L’Angolo Ristorante Italiano
1415 Porter St.
Philadelphia, PA
215-389-4252
Proprietors: Davide and Kathryn Faenza
Chef: Davide Faenza (originally from Gallipoli, Puglia, worked at La Baia, Mediterraneo and Il Portico)
Lunch (Tuesday through Friday) and Dinner (Tuesday through Sunday)
Closed: Monday
BYOB
*Village of the Bories
The Village of the Bories, classified as an historic site in 1977, constitutes the most significant grouping of dry stone architecture in the area of Gordes, France.
This exceptional style of architecture without architects has existed in the Mediterranean for centuries. Trulli in Apulia, Caselle in Liguria, Crete and Sardinia, Syria and Spain. In the French Alps it is called a Souleiaire, a barn exposed to the sun, and in west of the Durance they call them Cabanon, even though they resemble a borie the least.
In this particular village you will see houses, sheep-folds, baker's ovens, wine tanks,surfaces to beat corn, lanes, and walls. The origin of the bories goes back to the Bronze age. The most recent were built in the18th century. The ancient village is now a protected area, but is open to visitors.
Incidentally. Gordes is listed as one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages in France).
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