Locorotondo is a dream in white in the Puglia region in Italy’s deep South.
Just 50 kilometres from the city of Bari
This delightful little town in Puglia has a peculiar circular layout from which it derives its name, round place from the Latin Locus Rotundus. It is some 50 kilometres inland from Bari, Puglia’s regional capital, and just eight kilometres from the Alberobello which is the area’s main tourist attraction with its high concentration of trulli dwellings. 
Whitewashed walls, flowering balconies and trulli
The ancient heart of Locorotondo is truly unique and exerts an uncommon charm and fascination on all who visit it. The old centre, enclosed in its circular perfection of stone and limestone, seems suspended between a dream world and reality. Its pristine whitewashed walls act as a dazzling backdrop to the Baroque architecture in local stone and the patches of intense colour of its flowering balconies. From its belvedere you can admire a mosaic of small vineyards broken by dry-stone walls, patches of Mediterranean woodland and silvery olive groves surrounding ancient farmhouses, while thousands of the typical cone-shaped trulli dwellings are scattered around the surrounding area.
Palaces in a stately main square
Passing through the Porta Napoli gate you enter the welcoming and elegant 19th-century Piazza Vittorio Emanuele square, once called Piazza Castello (castle square) as it flanked the ancient castle which once stood where the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows now stands. On the right side of the square stands an imposing 19th-century style mansion, and on the other side the grandiose Palazzo Aprile-Ximenes, painted a bright shade of typical Pompeian red. Worth seeing are the Mother Church dedicated to St George Martyr, the Church of St Nicholas (with a trullo dome) and the Church of the Madonna della Greca. 
Local delicacies made from tripe and stale bread
Locorotondo is famous for its 130 or so contrade (districts) and for its Locorotondo DOC white wine. Visitors should try the gnumerèdde suffuchète lamb tripe rolls which are slowly cooked in terracotta pans. Another local specialty is A Ciallèdde, a typical and tasty dish of rural and Mediterranean tradition made with stale bread, tomatoes and onions.
