When Historical Untruths Enhance Popularity of a Tourist Destination: Fake, Real and Everything in between About the UNESCO Site 'Trulli of Alberobello'

Separating fact-based history from its fake version is an ongoing challenge. Hunting down false facts about the past is a matter of anthropology of heritage: false information and mythicised imagery about the past strongly affect the authenticity of the artefact and are meant to be the harbinger of the deliberate creation of fakes ex novo. This happened in the modern history of Alberobello, a town in the Puglia region – Southern Italy – renowned for its typical buildings known as ‘Trulli’. Foundational stories often resort to incorrect or exaggerated narratives and outright lies to compensate for gaps in recorded history. This paper opines two historical untruths that significantly impacted the popularity of ‘Trulli of Alberobello’, an Italian tourist destination among the best known in the world, as a consequence of its recognition as a World Heritage Site in 1996. While the UNESCO badge is an important marketing tool in global tourism, its presence does not bind those responsible for the site’s management to guarantee faithful historical exposure. This has fuelled the increase of inaccurate guided tours and non-authentic merchandising. Consequently, the attempt to restore history faithful to the sources is not a fact that involves only the community of residents. Still, it concerns the entire tourist sector made up of the sale of souvenirs, guidebooks, organised tours, TV shows and even cartoons.