Rione Aia Piccola, the lived-in quarter

Aia Piccola sits opposite Rione Monti and holds about four hundred trulli. The difference is not architectural but social: most of these are still ordinary homes. There are no souvenir racks, few restaurants, and the lanes carry the small evidence of people living in them — pots by doors, washing between walls, cats on warm stone.

That makes it the better half of Alberobello to photograph people in. The backgrounds are quieter, so a couple or a family is the subject rather than competing with merchandise, and the lanes are narrow enough to give clean close frames from any angle. Because it is on the eastern side, it catches the first sun in the morning while Rione Monti is still in shade — the two quarters work in sequence rather than as alternatives.

It is residential, so behave accordingly: keep voices down early, do not block doorways, and ask before photographing into a courtyard. The lanes are flatter than in Monti, which makes this the more comfortable of the two for a family session. There is a small municipal museum of trullo life at the edge of the quarter if the shoot needs an interior, with its own opening hours to check.