Italy – Sicily – Agrigento

Day 56 Wednesday 11th October 2023 - Agrigento

The drive from Trapani to Agrigento was boring and around 4 hours long. The conditions of the autostradas in Sicily leave a lot to be desired, with numerous road works happening to repair and upgrade the highways. There are continual restrictions on both speed and laneways. We suspect the infrastructure of the highways is getting quite old and either have been poorly maintained or poorly constructed. Most of the autostradas sit on pylons bridging the valleys and connecting the tunnels.

Arrived at Agrigento and met our host Lello who gave us a warm welcome and explained how to find our way around, eventually dropping us off at the local bus station to catch a bus to the Valley of the Temples, for which Agrigento is famous.

" the Valley of the Temples is world-famous for its imposing Doric temples, one of the most significant testimonies of Greek culture and art. The Greek temples, symbols of the city of Agrigento for centuries, are universally recognised as the most fascinating and majestic testimony that Magna Graecia bequeathed to Sicily and the whole of Italy."

More information on Agrigento : https://www.italia.it/en/sicily/agrigento/things-to-do/agrigento-valley-of-the-temples

One thing Agrigento is not famous for is its bus service. We checked the timetable and it seemed the bus to the Valley ran every 2 hours. We checked Google and it was a 40 minute walk, so we decided to walk, get a bus ticket on the way and catch the bus back into town, as it was all up hill !

It took us 30 minutes to get there, the site was huge and we walked around the site for 3.75 hours, viewing all the temples, the best of which was the Temple of Concordia - the most intact of them all.

Naturally a bus wasn't in sight so after waiting for 15 minutes at the temples we walked back into town, and no bus passed us the whole way. Walked around the old centre of town for a while before heading back to our apartment for left over pizza for dinner.