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Locorotondo

The perfectly circular white town on the rim of Puglia's Itria Valley, roofed in gabled cummerse.

  • Locorotondo
  • District
Plan your visit
Where
Locorotondo
Best for
Circular plan
Allow
2 hours
Tickets
Free

Locorotondo earns its name from its plan: a near-perfect circle of whitewashed lanes laid out around 1000 CE under the Benedictine monastery of Monopoli, and still legible today from above.

What sets it apart from other Itria Valley towns is its roofline: instead of the conical trulli found in the surrounding countryside, the old town is built of cummerse, tall gabled houses roofed in interlocking limestone slabs that shed rain in a single sharp pitch. Wrought-iron balconies dressed with geraniums line the alleys, and the eastern edge of town opens onto a long natural terrace over a valley scattered with trulli and vineyards. Those vineyards grow the grapes (Verdeca and Bianco d'Alessano) behind the crisp Locorotondo DOC white wine served in every wine bar on the main piazza.

Locorotondo on its hill seen from the fields, white houses stacked around a domed church
White gabled houses stack up the hill around the dome and bell tower.
Sources and citations (4)
  1. Comune di LocorotondoMunicipioDescriptionRead source
  2. Regione PugliaLocorotondo - Borghi storiciHistoric-village descriptionRead source
  3. Comune di LocorotondoRegolamento EdilizioArticles 62 and 71Read source
  4. Ministero della Cultura, DGABAPPalazzo MorelliIdentity, ownership and protection fieldsRead source

Look closer

A whitewashed lane in Locorotondo with pots of geraniums and a stone arch
A whitewashed laneGeraniums in pots line a narrow lane of white walls and pale stone paving.
The Itria Valley seen from the edge of Locorotondo, with fields, olive trees and trulli
The Itria Valley viewThe town’s white circle opens onto a valley of small fields, olive trees and scattered trulli.
Locorotondo from above, a near-circular old town of white gabled roofs around a church
The circle from aboveFrom above, the old town is a near-perfect ring of steep stone roofs around the church.

Four things worth finding

If you see nothing else, see these.

  1. Cummerse roofsTraditional Itria Valley builders

    The steep gabled stone roofs are what separate Locorotondo from its trulli-roofed neighbors. Look up as you walk the inner ring of lanes.Lanes of the old town, around the Via Nardelli side

  2. The Via Nardelli terrace

    A long lookout over vineyards and scattered trulli. This is where the town’s white circle opens onto the countryside.Edge of the old town facing the Valle d’Itria

  3. Madonna della Greca

    A church documented from 1520 and known for its porch and the wide view from its terrace over the valley.Edge of the historic center, near the Villa Comunale

  4. Chiesa di San Giorgio Martire

    The mother church, built between 1790 and 1825, keeps fourteenth-century stone reliefs from an earlier building.In the old town

Plan your visit

Everything you need before you go.

Tickets
Free
Booking
No booking needed
Time needed
2 hours
Best time
Early evening, when the balconies are lit and the valley terrace catches the sunset
Getting there
Locorotondo is a stop on the Bari-Taranto rail line and sits a short drive from Alberobello; park outside the old town and walk in, since the lanes are pedestrian.
Accessibility
The old town's lanes are paved but narrow, uneven and often stepped, which makes wheelchair and stroller access difficult in parts of the historic core.

Book a table at one of the wine bars actually on the eastern terrace, not just in the piazza: the view of trulli and vineyards below is the real reason to linger over a glass here.

Get directionsGoogle MapsApple Maps

Good to know

How long should you spend in Locorotondo?

Plan on about two hours: the lanes, the terrace and a glass of Locorotondo white in the main piazza. Half a day is fine if you pair it with nearby Alberobello or Martina Franca.

Is Locorotondo worth visiting?

Yes, and it is far calmer than Alberobello. The appeal is atmosphere: white lanes, flower-hung balconies and views over the valley, plus a good local white wine.

Can you see Locorotondo and Alberobello in one day?

Yes. They are close together in the Itria Valley, so a day easily holds both, with time left for Martina Franca or Cisternino. Start in Locorotondo in the morning and finish with the sunset terrace.

More to see nearby

Same city first, then the nearest across the region.

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