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European surprises(#8 in single-image teaser series: reigning cat, Alberobello)

 

 

 

For an observant “stranger in a strange land”, local signage often proves a rich source of amusement and/or misunderstanding – sometimes, the latter, therefore the former.

The pictured sign ensures that monolingual English-speakers do “get” the intended message; nonetheless, you are looking at the winner of my personal award for “our European trip’s most amusing signage”.

Many tourists walk the feline monarch of Alberobello’s street.

Almost all are obedient, so the king – or queen – usually sits on his/her “throne”, undisturbed.

Q: Why do tourists from all over the world flock to this small town in Puglia, southern Italy?

A: Because Alberobello, truly, has more trulli  (singular, trullo) than any other place.

Trulli only exist in Puglia’s Itria Valley.

In Alberobello great care has been to restore and to showcase what UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention describes as “remarkable examples of a prehistoric building technique”.

Much more to come, in forthcoming, multi-image posts.

Meanwhile, this episode in the present, allegedly “single-image” series is pleased to include a visual “bonus”

 

 

“Trulli” world HQ: Alberobello, Puglia, Italy, 10.33 am, 13 September 2023. Photo copyright Doug Spencer.

 

 

If you can’t wait to know a little more about these remarkable, drywall (no mortar) buildings, click here.

 

Published in Americas and Eurasia and Africa nature and travel photographs