As anyone who has ever planned a family vacation knows, booking a home that satisfies all of your party’s needs is a true art. By the time my parents, brother, and I embarked upon six days in Puglia in September, I had spent hours searching for a home that checked all the boxes. The nonnegotiables: My dad was set on staying in a trullo (the historic, conical stone homes native to the Itria Valley), my mother wanted laundry, and we all wanted a pool. And for me, a former design editor, aesthetics were always critical.
These criteria triangulated to find us at Trullo Giulio, 15 minutes outside of Martina Franca. Our host coordinated with her neighbor, Anna, to meet us at the property after the 90-minute drive from Bari. We could hear Anna’s tiny red farm truck puttering down the road to greet us, which should give you an image of just how rural this part of the region is—nothing but olive trees as far as the eye can see. Between my father’s three years of Italian lessons and some universal sign language, we got the lay of the land, which consisted of the main trullo (two beds, one bath) and two outbuildings that hosted two additional bedrooms, a bathroom, and the kitchen.
The decor was almost Santorinian in its whitewashed and blue-accented simplicity. The owners had taken great care to decorate the trullo with local textiles and pottery (I highly recommend a day trip to Grottaglie, the ceramic destination of the region) and features that allowed the original stone walls and vaulted ceilings to breathe. It’s modernized, but still retains its charm. And yes, there were a few quirks. The bedrooms in the main trullo were curtained off from the living room—don’t worry, the bathroom had a door—and the advertised AC units were only in the outbuildings. The Wi-Fi and cell service were pretty much nonexistent, which all but highlighted the fact that the true heart of the home was really the outdoor space.
