Locorotondo: The Round White Town
The prettiest of the Valle d’Itria’s white towns, a perfect ring of lime-washed houses with steep cummerse roofs, wrapped around a hilltop with a balcony over a sea of trulli and vineyards. Small, immaculate and the source of the valley’s crispest white wine.
Where is Locorotondo?
In the heart of the Valle d’Itria, in the Metropolitan City of Bari, on a low hill (~410 m) ringed by trulli and vineyards. It sits between Martina Franca (~10 min) and Alberobello (~15 min), about an hour from Bari airport and ~50 minutes from Brindisi. The slow, scenic Ferrovie del Sud Est railway threads the valley and stops here, so you can arrive by train, but a car is what unlocks the masserie and neighbouring towns. The round old town is car-free and stepped. Park below and walk up. Population ~14,000.
Best things to do in Locorotondo
Locorotondo is one of Italy’s borghi più belli, and you feel it the moment you climb in: the old town is laid out as a near-perfect circle of brilliant white houses, swept and flower-hung, with the steep pitched roofs, cummerse, that you’ll see nowhere else in the valley. There’s little to "tick off" and that’s the point; the pleasure is the slow loop of the ring, the wine and the view. Give it a relaxed half-day, or stay the night and have the lanes to yourself once the day-trippers leave.
The round centro storico
Walk the concentric ring of lanes. Via Nardelli is the showpiece, past white houses with the tall, pitched cummerse roofs unique to the town. Spotless and quietly lovely.
The valley belvedere
From the gardens of the Villa Comunale the whole Valle d’Itria opens below, trulli, dry-stone walls and vineyards stretching to Martina Franca. Best at golden hour.
Chiesa Madre di San Giorgio
The 19th-century neoclassical mother church on the high point of the ring, with the slim Chiesa della Madonna della Greca and its Gothic touches nearby.
Also worth your time: an evening passeggiata and an aperitivo on the Pergola del Vino; a stroll out to the trulli-dotted countryside on the town’s edge; and simply finding the best loop of the ring at dusk, when the white walls glow.
Where to stay in Locorotondo
Locorotondo gives you two ways to sleep, and which you choose shapes the trip. Stay in a restored house or B&B inside (or just below) the ring and you wake up in the white lanes with the belvedere and the wine bars on your doorstep, but you’ll park outside and the town itself is small. Stay in a masseria or trullo out in the surrounding valley: Locorotondo’s countryside is some of the prettiest in Itria, thick with trulli and vineyards, and you trade walkable evenings for olive groves, a pool and silence, with a car as the price of entry. For a first trip we lean towards a countryside base with a night in town. Reckon on roughly €130-230 a night in spring and autumn, climbing steeply in high summer when the best places book out well ahead.
Compare live prices for hotels and rentals around Locorotondo on the map.
Our top picks
Leonardo Trulli Resort
A cluster of restored trulli with a pool in the countryside near Locorotondo, comfortable and authentic, the easy way to sleep in a cone-roofed house with a car to hand.
Sotto le Cummerse
An albergo diffuso with rooms and small apartments spread through restored cummerse houses in the centro storico, atmospheric and quiet, with the white lanes and wine bars at the door.
Masseria Trulli Bruni
A trulli and masseria stay in the countryside just outside town, with a pool and some of the best views back to Locorotondo, simple, friendly and well priced.
Our top experiences from Locorotondo
From Locorotondo the experiences that earn their place are the valley’s own: a tasting of Locorotondo DOC whites, Verdeca and Bianco d’Alessano, at a working cellar, a hands-on class in orecchiette and valley cucina povera, or a slow e-bike loop past trulli and dry-stone walls. The coast and boat trips are an easy drive away but better booked down at the sea; we link those on the experiences hub.
See live tours and activities in Locorotondo
Live availability and prices via GetYourGuide, updated in real time.
Locorotondo wine tasting
Locorotondo is white-wine country. While most of Puglia makes big reds, this pretty, round-built town in the Valle d’Itria is known for its crisp DOC whites from Verdeca and Bianco d’Alessano grapes. A tasting pairs the wine with the trulli countryside, usually at a cellar or a masseria, and the town itself is one of the loveliest in the region. Whether to take a guided wine tour or drive yourself is the first thing to settle, and it changes what you can taste.
Tastings here are relaxed and rural. You visit a family cantina or masseria, walk the vines and taste the whites (and usually a red or rosato too), often with food and a view over the trulli valley.
- Duration: 1 to 2 hours, half a day if combined with the white towns.
- You taste: the local DOC whites, plus reds and rosato from the same estates.
- Where: cellars and masserie around Locorotondo in the Valle d’Itria.
- Good to know: it pairs naturally with a visit to Alberobello and the other white towns.
Yes, and it is a refreshing change from Puglia’s big reds. The Valle d’Itria whites are crisp and food-friendly, the setting among the trulli is gorgeous, and Locorotondo is one of the prettiest towns in Puglia, so the whole day delivers.
Food & wine in Locorotondo
Locorotondo’s name on a label means one thing to Italians: white wine. The Locorotondo DOC, built on Verdeca and Bianco d’Alessano grapes, is crisp, low-alcohol and made for the heat, and the historic cooperative cellar in town (going since the 1930s) is the easiest place to taste it. On the plate, this is Valle d’Itria cucina povera: orecchiette with turnip tops or a simple tomato sauce, fava bean purée with wild chicory (fave e cicorie) and, as everywhere in the valley, the fornello pronto tradition of butcher-grilled bombette. Sidestep the obvious tables right on the busiest lanes; the rooms worth your evening are usually a turn or two off the ring.
Getting to Locorotondo
| From | Distance | By car |
|---|---|---|
| Bari | ~65 km | ~55 min |
| Brindisi airport (BDS) | ~65 km | ~50 min |
| Bari airport (BRI) | ~75 km | ~1 hr 5 |
| Alberobello | ~10 km | ~15 min |
| Cisternino | ~7 km | ~12 min |
| Martina Franca | ~10 km | ~15 min |
Fly into Bari (~1h) or Brindisi (~50 min), then drive: a car is what makes the Valle d’Itria work. By train, Locorotondo sits on the Ferrovie del Sud Est Bari-Taranto line, the slow scenic route through Alberobello and Martina Franca, which is a pleasure in itself but limited for reaching masserie and the coast. The station sits below the hill, a short, steep walk up to the ring. In the old town you’re on foot; everything beyond, the valley towns, wineries, the coast, assumes wheels.
Arriving by air? A fixed-price private airport transfer saves you the drive and the hire-car ZTL worry, and an Italy eSIM gives you maps and data the moment you land.
Day trips from Locorotondo
Locorotondo sits in the dead centre of the Valle d’Itria, which makes it one of the best launch pads in Puglia: the valley’s loveliest towns and a vast cave system are all inside half an hour, and Ostuni’s white city and the Adriatic coast are barely further.
Alberobello
Trulli · 15 min · Alberobello guide
Martina Franca
Baroque town · 10 min · Martina Franca guide
Cisternino
Fornello town · 10 min · Cisternino guide
Grotte di Castellana
Caves · 20 min · Grotte di Castellana guide
Ostuni
White city · 30 min · Ostuni guide
See all things to do
Best time to visit
May, June and September are ideal, warm days, cool evenings and the valley at its greenest. July and August bring the heat and the crowds. Best time to visit Puglia
How to get there
Fly Bari or Brindisi, then drive. Getting to Puglia · Renting a car in Puglia
Related: Martina Franca guide · Alberobello guide · Best towns in Puglia · Valle d’Itria masserie · Puglia wine tasting · Where to base yourself in Puglia
I grew up in the province of Brindisi and spent 30 years in Puglia; the Salento coast is home water. Everything above is checked on the ground; when a place slips, it gets updated. More about who is behind this guide