Puglia's White City — a hilltop medieval town of blazing white-painted limestone houses, ancient olive groves, and the Adriatic coast below, the southernmost point of Italy's boot
Ostuni (pop. 28,000) is a hilltop town in the heel of Italy's boot — Puglia's most immediately recognizable townscape: every surface of the medieval centro storico is whitewashed with lime paint, creating a light-reflecting white mass visible from kilometers across the Adriatic plains. The town has been inhabited since the Messapian period (8th century BCE); the current white-painting tradition dates from the 15th century, possibly as a pest-control measure (lime kills insects and bacteria) or possibly simply because the local soft limestone whitens in the sun. Below the hill, the Valle d'Itr…
Ostuni was settled by the Messapians (an ancient Italic people related to the Illyrians of the western Balkans) in the 8th century BCE, who left behind a set of cave inscriptions in the Messapian language. Greek and later Roman occupation followed; the city was sacked by the Goths in 545 CE and spent much of the early medieval period in Byzantine hands. Norman rulers took Ostuni in the 11th century; the Aragonese in the 15th century; the Gonzaga of Mantua became feudal lords in the 17th century and commissioned the Cathedral (completed 1495) that anchors the hilltop. The white-painting tradit…