Locorotondo, Puglia

Looking out from the park over the olive trees and cities below.  The picture from the town plaque indicates the circular nature (above).  Baroque style church below.  Incredible sculputures and paintings everywhere.  This church was built atop an ancient building, as seems quite common in Italy.  Old buildings are never torn down, they are all over Italy.  

The town of Locorotondo gets it's name from the circular pattern used to lay out the city "Round Place".  It is perched atop a high hill and encircles the entire top of the hill.  It is spectacular to look at both Locortondo and Cisternino from atop Martina Franca.  All of these cities are perched on hills, but only Locortondo is built in a circle.  Each of these cities has several large old churches dedicated to  a patron saint or biblical figure.  I will not include too many churches as there are too many and they begin to look a bit the same, but they are incredibly impressive to view in real life.  The streets are narrow and the churches are very tall so I can rarely get the whole thing in one shot.  

In the central park there is the war memorial. This seems to appear in most Italian towns.  The Palmisano family really paid a price.

The Palmisano family really took a hit in WWII.  I had read that this monument prompted a book/movie about the family and their sacrifice in WWII.