Alberobello + Locorotondo Loop

This loop through Puglia's Valle d'Itria pairs Alberobello, 65 km southeast of Bari, with the hilltop village of Locorotondo, reached in about 1h 15 by FSE regional train (€4.50) or 50 minutes by car. Alberobello is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its trulli — conical drystone houses with whitewashed walls and grey limestone roofs — concentrated in the tourist-focused Rione Monti and the quieter, more residential Aia Piccola. A good one-day arc begins mid-morning in Rione Monti before the coach tours arrive, climbing the lanes of trulli now filled with shops and small museums, then visiting the Trullo Sovrano, the only trullo built on two storeys, and the trullo-shaped church of Sant'Antonio. Lunch is best taken in a trullo restaurant over orecchiette and a glass of Primitivo. In the afternoon, a short hop by car or the slower train reaches Locorotondo, a circular whitewashed town ranked among Italy's borghi più belli, with flower-lined alleys, the cummerse gabled houses and panoramic terraces over the vineyards of the Valle d'Itria. Drivers can extend the circuit to baroque Martina Franca, completing an 80 km loop through the heart of the valley. The train is the easy, affordable choice for Alberobello alone, while a car is needed to string the smaller towns together efficiently, as FSE connections between them are infrequent. The countryside is green and fragrant in spring and busy with the grape harvest in autumn. Throughout, comfortable shoes help on the cobbled, gently sloping lanes, and early or late visits give both softer light for photographs and respite from the souvenir bustle that fills Rione Monti at midday.