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A good place to begin is with the countryside and country folk of the present and the recent past. Although there is definite continuity to the Locorotondese settlement pattern, and to many institutions belonging to its rural population, much change has taken place over the last several decades. In keeping with the observation that the present equals the cumulation of living experiences, in this description of contemporary rural Locorotondo “recent past” will mean “within the lifetimes of living people,” and therefore roughly pertaining to the period between the First World War and the present, and incorporating both terminal peasant and postpeasant phases of rural life. For the peasant population of Locorotondo, work and associated values form the center of life. Therefore labor is the theme of this chapter. THE PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL SETTING The environment Apulia is a big region which includes the “heel” and the “spur” of Italy and a vast territory to the interior. Coastal plains characterize the Adriatic edge and the lower part of the Salentine Peninsula, and in the interior three plateaus, or murgie, the Northern Murgia, the Murgia dei Trulli, and the Salentine Murgia, descend step-like from northwest to southeast. The Murgia dei Trulli covers the area of juncture between the “heel” and the “boot,” and contains communes belonging to three Provinces: Bari, Brindisi, and Taranto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]