Pool · Trulli d'Amore · Monopoli, Valle d'Itria
Where the pigsty was,
the water is now.
An infinity-edge pool of three by four metres between the dry-stone walls. Six jacuzzi positions all aligned on one side, facing fig trees, cherry trees and olive trees. Comfortable sunbeds in the olive grove, umbrellas to hand, branded pool towel for each guest.
A trullo with a pool in Puglia isn't always obvious: a country house here typically lives without one. Ours arrived in June 2026, built where the old pigsty of the masseria stood, next to the adjacent covered shelter where animals took refuge from the sun. The dry-stone walls around it are the same stones as a century ago: we didn't touch them. An infinity-edge basin of three by four metres, six jacuzzi positions aligned on one side overlooking the orchard, the olive grove around with sunbeds and umbrellas for those who only want the sound of cicadas.
A restoration story
Where the pigsty of the masseria stood, the pool stands now
When we opened Trulli d'Amore in summer 2025, there was no pool. A Puglian country property rarely has one by default: you live with the shade of the olive trees, the sound of cicadas, a bucket of water over your head if it gets really hot.
But after reading the first reviews from our guests — families with children, groups of friends in July — we understood that a pool was needed.
We wanted it in one specific spot. On the south side of the masseria, separated from the house by a dry-stone wall and a row of olive trees, stood the old pigsty: a stone box of the kind that until the 1960s housed two or three pigs for the family. My grandmother's 1958 photographs still show it standing, with its chianche slab roof in place.
We kept the perimeter walls in exposed stone and dug downward. What had been a covered stable became an open basin of water. The technical room was carved out of the adjacent covered shelter, the small stone-roofed building where the animals once took refuge from the sun — we kept it as it was and hid the pumps, filters and water treatment system inside. From the outside you don't see it.
Three by four, infinity edge
An infinity-edge basin between the walls, jacuzzi all on one side
This is not a hotel pool. Three by four is exactly the space the pigsty allowed, and not a centimetre more. We wouldn't have wanted it larger anyway: it would have broken the proportion between dry-stone walls, olive trees and masseria stone.
It is an infinity-edge pool. The water reaches the rim, slips over the limestone, drops into an invisible channel and returns to the basin clean. From outside it looks like a basin filled to the brim; from inside it's a mirror that continues all the way to the colour of the olive trees.
Six jacuzzi positions all on one side, aligned along the long edge that faces the orchard. When you sit just below the water surface, in front of your eyes are the fig trees, the cherry trees in May, the ancient olive trees all year round. Bubbles rise around legs, back, neck. You speak face to face — the depth is uniform, one metre throughout — and you look at the orchard.
Just outside the basin there is a natural wooden platform, wide, warm to the touch, that forms the surround. Then the earth of the olive grove begins. No white tiles, no synthetic decking, no smooth concrete.
The olive grove is the pool area
Sunbeds with mattress, umbrellas, branded towel for each guest
The olive grove next to the pool is where guests actually spend their warm-month afternoons. Full-length sunbeds with proper mattresses — the kind that feel more like an outdoor sofa — set out between the trees, one per olive tree. A small side table at each sunbed for the book, the water bottle, the coffee.
For the sun you have two options at hand. The natural canvas umbrellas are right by the sunbeds, already open in the morning: for those who want precise shade that doesn't shift. Or the ancient olive trees, doing their work all day long: a shade that moves with the sun, different every hour, the kind you don't forget.
The pool towel is on us: a large cotton towel with the Trulli d'Amore logo embroidered in red, one per guest, changed every three days. You don't need to bring anything from home, and you don't need to ask — it's folded on your bed the day you arrive.
Season, hours, maintenance
Always open, no hours
The pool opens in May and closes in October. When the season is kind — a warm October, an early April — we extend the opening for as long as it makes sense. It is not artificially heated: Puglia has enough sun from May to mid-October to warm it on its own.
The maintenance is automatic, daily, and never interrupts your day. Pumps, filters, water-treatment dosing all work quietly behind the scenes, from the technical room hidden in the old animal shelter. The basin is never closed for service: it is usable all day, without interruption.
And there are no hours. Want a swim at seven in the morning before coffee? Fine. Want to stay in the water after dinner, under the stars? The pool is lit in the evening, warm white underwater lights switched on at sunset. They stay on for as long as you want.
Sounds that are here, sounds that are not
The sound of our land, or a record if you prefer
Between the olive trees runs a discreet sound system. If you fancy a soundtrack in the evening — an Italian classic, an aria, slow jazz — switch it on from your phone, choose what to listen to, set the volume. Speakers hidden among the branches, no visible wires. The music is there only when you want it.
Or nothing. And the sound of our land becomes the soundtrack: the cicadas of July that never stop, the wind from the fields moving through the olive leaves, the blackbirds singing before seven in the morning, the rustle of the infinity-edge water that never quite stops. They're enough on their own.
At sunset, the wine is already in the house. You open it, you pour it, you carry it under an olive tree. There are no cocktails at the pool edge, no service that comes to you: you fill your own glass, and the golden light falling on the olive grove does the rest. For special occasions — a birthday, an anniversary, a chef-curated dinner — a dedicated service can be arranged on advance request. Otherwise, sunset is already the service.
Questions about the pool
What guests ask
When is the pool at Trulli d'Amore open?
How big is the pool?
Where are the six jacuzzi positions?
Is the pool heated?
Do I need to bring a pool towel?
Can children use the pool?
Are there pool hours?
Is there a lifeguard?
The pool is just one piece
See the rest of the house
Four en-suite bedrooms, a real kitchen for ten people, an outdoor wood-fired oven, ancient olive trees all around and now the pool where the pigsty was.