Puglia: The Trulli of Valle d'Itria

Driving south along the "heel" of Italy, you start seeing lots of stone walls in the fields and then, a bunch of these conical-roofed buildings in the fields, called "Trulli"

They are built from local stone without any mortar. There is a theory that they were built in such a way to be dismantled quickly to avoid taxation.

The town of Alberobello has whole neighborhoods with these trulli. The architecture is right for its environment as the buildings are cool in summer and retain heat in the winter.

The trulli are decorated with symbols and topped with a capstone, sometimes indicating which family lives inside.