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Report 1087: Sicily in February

By davidx from England, Winter 2001

Page 4 of 14: Agrigento

Valley of the Temples [East]

After two nights at Siracusa I returned to Catania before taking a bus across country to Agrigento. My main recollection of the journey is the proportion of the motorway that had been built on 'high stilts.' It seemed a good idea for giving up less agricultral land but is the land traversed useful with all the traffic fumes?

I remember arriving in Agrigento well enough. The first thing I saw was some abandoned placards, which were clearly connected with some festival. I thanked my lucky stars that it was over, as the likelihood of finding a room in festival time didn't seem great. Then I saw a notice and my heart sank. Far from being over, the festival 'del mandorlo in fiori' (almond blossom) was just reaching its peak. The next day, Sunday, was to have the final procession, concerts and firework display. I started to work out different itineraries in my head, thinking I should never find a room in Agrigento for the Saturday and Sunday nights. Believe it or not I did find an en-suite room on the ground floor of the very first place I tried!

Of course Agrigento is one of the most visited places in Sicily because of the well known Valley of the Temples. This, and the fine purpose built archaeological museum about half way to it, is the main thing to be seen. 'Valley' is a somewhat misleading term in the name as the route of the temples is more like a contour path along the side of the slope up from the sea. The town is further up the hill and a local bus connects.

Whatever you call them, however, the temples make for glorious sights. They are spread for a considerable distance among the hillside, those to the east of the road being the more spectacular but the west side providing some haphazard mounds of stone from destroyed temples still amazingly rich in spite of centuries of pilfering.

The main street of the town has much more interesting shops than are generally characteristic of the island.

What about that festival? Next page!

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