Apulia: Locorotondo

We didn’t include Locorotondo in our plan. It was 6km from the trullo we stayed in in the middle of nowhere aka olive grove. So we thought: why not. And this is the kind of surprise I like. If Locorotondo is not one of the most beautiful towns in Italy, I don’t know what is. Oh wait. It’s actually on the list Borghi più belli d’Italia, which is a list of the most beautiful towns in Italy. Told ya.

Locorotondo was completely EMPTY when we arrived. No tourist at all. No people at all. It was afternoon, siesta time. Everything was closed except for maybe 2 restaurants and 3 cafes. We didn’t have a plan or even a map. Our plan was to walk around, get lost in the streets and take photos. And have an aperol spritz in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele.

Are there any attractions in Locorotondo? Not really. The town has 3 main features:

1. It’s white
2. The old town is round – well, it’s rotondo for a reason
3. There’s a free parking next to the old town

The round shape of the old town you can only see when you look from above, but the white color makes everything very pretty, photogenic and instagramable. Sure, there are churches (hello Italy), but why visit them if Locorotondo inhabitants are apparently competing in the contest “the prettiest decor next to the entrance using pot plants”. Just take a look:

Our plan was the lack of it, but there was one thing we wanted to do: find a place from which you can take a picture of the old town. It took as a bit, but than we saw a group of people in the distance. Ok, there it is. So we went there. By car. Took photos. Yes, it was the right place:

In the evening we came back to Locorotondo for dinner. In comparison to the lively Bari, Locorotondo was weirdly deserted. Maybe we came too early. All in all we where in the south of Italy and we went for dinner at 7pm. Good luck with that. Unfortunately there were no menus in front of restaurants so it took us a while to find a restaurant with dishes around 8 euros, not 18. We wanted to have pasta, but ended up having pizza at Casa Pinto in one of the charming houses. And it was a good choice. Visiting Locorotondo was even better.