Cisternino old town

Cisternino sits on the rim of the Valle d'Itria about fifteen minutes from Ostuni, and it is the village people end up preferring: smaller, quieter, and lived in rather than curated. The old centre is a knot of white alleys that opens now and then into a courtyard with a fig tree and a flight of external steps.

Those staircases are the reason to come with a camera. Almost every house has one, they are all whitewashed, and they give you height, a diagonal and a natural seat within two metres of each other. The alleys themselves are narrow enough that light arrives as reflection rather than sun for most of the day, which is flattering and forgiving.

On the northern side the village looks out over the valley, and there is a small belvedere with the whole basin of dry-stone walls and trulli below. That is the wide frame; everything else here is close work.

The village is genuinely residential, and by evening the alleys fill with people eating at the butchers' grills that Cisternino is known for. Morning is quiet, evening is warm and busy — pick according to whether you want the place empty or alive.