Road trip in Sicily, part four: Agrigento

(Date: 16-18.07.2007)
(Written: 19.07.2007)

After our unplanned day trip to Palermo, we drove south to Agrigento, a small city especially famous for its Valle dei Templi (valley of the Temples). In fact, it's not really a valley, rather a succession of hills with beautifully preserved temples and other interesting monuments. When you arrive in Agrigento, the first thing you cannot miss is the huge but partially destroyed Temple of Juno (or Temple of Hera; Juno is the roman name of the Greek goddess Hera, wife of Jupiter/Zeus).

Since it was rather late already when we arrived, we just spent a moment in the hotel's swimming pool before going for dinner. We chose a small restaurant named Kalo in the old Agrigento (the city has two very distinct parts; our hotel was in between). The restaurant was great, the food wonderful. Our girls enjoyed a risotto with seafood (tutto mare). Me I had 3 different marinated fishes as appetizer (almost raw fish and shrimps marinated in various sauces, delicious) before enjoying some veal cooked with Marsala wine. The setting was very nice too, we had small balcony to ourselves, facing the Piazza Aldo Moro and enjoying the scenic evening life.

The next morning, after breakfast, we went to visit the valley of the Temples. It was hot already, so visiting in the morning is definitely the best choice. The walk is very nice, with many monuments to be seen (the best preserved is the Temple of the Concord, which was saved from the Christians' destructive rage because it was turned into a church). Also many trees, especially almond trees (a specialty of Sicily), but also figs, etc.

On the other side of the hill, we took a short walk amongst the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter, a HUGE but unfortunately destroyed temple. The fact that it has been destroyed in one of the Punic wars gives an additional charm to the ruins. It was like walking in one of the history books we read during our Latin classes back in pre-university.

For lunch, we went back to old Agrigento and walked the small lanes for a while, until everything was closed. We then followed the 'guide du routard' signs to a small but excellent restaurant where we had meals and drinks for 4, all for 15 Euros.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to visit the archeology museum, with a very nice collections of vases and statues, and an especially impressive piece: A partially destroyed statue previously adorning the temple of Jupiter gave a better feel as to how huge that temple must have been. Really quite a sight.

After going back to the hotel and a swim in the hotel's pool, we went out for dinner again, this time in another restaurant named Kokalo. The food was OK, but not as nice as the previous day's. A good night's sleep concluded that day, before we drove further direction Piazza Armerina and Caltagirone.

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