Agrigento in Sicily: Exploring the Valley of the Temples—Agrigento’s Highlight—and the Birthplace of Nobel-Prize Winning Laureate Luigi Pirandello

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Agrigento in Sicily:

Exploring the Valley of the Temples—Agrigento’s Highlight—and the Birthplace of Nobel-Prize Winning Laureate Luigi Pirandello

It was another scorching day here in the Mediterranean Sea and I have to state that I am struggling as I deal with the heat and the relentless humidity. But we did sleep well and awoke to the delight of a magnificent breakfast served by Alfonso and his wife, Pinocha, in their Liola B and B.

Breakfast in Liola:

The breakfast room at Liola B and B is charming. It is all decorated in red and yellow—two cheerful colors that charm and whet the appetite. There are three rooms here and so three tables. Each was beautifully laid and with two couples already there before us, we took the third table and sat down to a magnificent repast. Alfonso had taken an order for us last night and when we sat there, there were massive pistachio and chocolate croissants awaiting us and I have to say that they are probably the best we have ever tasted. This is super high quality served in this place and no corners are cut. Llew and I had also order omlettes and those arrived soon enough. There was a small bread basket with a variety of rolls. There was butter, jam, a variety of yogurt pots, crisp bread, and so much fruit—we could help ourselves—plus three thick slices of cantaloupe which I ate with the prosciutto wrapped around them as this was also provided. In addition, we had decaff Americanos with hot milk which made for one of the best breakfasts I have ever eaten.

Off for the Day to Explore Agrigento’s Highlight:

Then, as kind Alfonson had informed us that he would, as a special service (because we have no car) drive us to the Valley of the Temples, we were ready, right after breakfast, to move. We were there in about 20 minutes, The heat was already intense and I was really afraid I would get dehydrated. I had carried two bottles of water and I made short shrift of them. In no time at all, we were at the Ticket Office and booking 2 tickets to cover the entire site which consists of three main and about three minor Greek temples. The former are in a very good state of preservation, the latter are in ruined or excavated state. Still, it would be a long and tiring morning as the ‘road’ along which they are located in very lengthy and the sun was simply merciless.

When we realized that there was a taxi that could take us to the site for just 3 euros each (most people came in their cars), we took it, of course, and were deposited at the first site—the Temple of Ginnone, formerly and incorrectly attributed to Juno. We were not allowed to get anywhere close to any of the temples as all of them are being preserved by thick red rope barriers. Still, once we took our pictures and read a little bit about each place, we moved on.

That was when our long walk began. There is not a bit of shade along this walkway that is littered with ruins of every kind—a cemetery, several temples, etc. As you walk on, plod really, from one temple to the next, you can read (in various languages) the significance of each site. I also had my own travel notes from Lonely Planet and those helped enormously in making us understand and appreciate what had gone on in these places around 500 BC when the Greeks had occupied Sicily and before the arrival of the Romans. The architectural bones of all Greek structures is clearly in evidence here and we understand the principles of Classical design from these remnants of a glorious past.

And so, we made our way to the Temple of Concordia, the best preserved of them all and one that is regularly photographed. It was all quite lovely. Then we walked on and sauntered in a Garden—the Garden of Kolumetra. This was filled with olive trees (and I also saw my first ever walnut tree here!), cacti of every kind and aloe and other dry-climate species of succulent trees. Yes, there were also citrus trees like oranges and lemons and there was finally a patch that offered some shade. I also saw a pomegranate tree for the first time, simply loaded with fruit. It was fascinating! And any number of fig trees! Finally, when we had rested, we arrived at the last significant temple—the Tempel of Eracles (Hercules), but this was only a collection of tall and very evocative pillars or columns rising up to touch the sky. In this place, people were walking all over the stones and I could understand why the rest of the temples are barricades. The last temple to Zeus Olympius is almost entirely in ruin—so while we did stroll around those massive remaining stones, there was really nothing particularly striking about what seemed like a load of rubble.

Interestingly, we also saw a breed of very strange and rare goats—called Capra Girgentana. Agrigento is famed for them because they are native to these hills. They are pure white, have beards and are distinctive for their extraordinary horns that are so high and so uniquely shaped that they look like antlers. We took a few pictures of them as they are extremely photogenic.

Fernando Botero at Agrigento:

I must say a word about the special Fernando Botero exhibition that is currently on display at this site. Brazil’s best-known modern sculptor has created a series of bronze sculptures inspired by Greek myths. There is Leda and the Swan, for instance, and Zeus with a Woman, etc. I believe that there are machetes—small versions of the colossal sculptures for which he has become famous. But it was interesting to see them in situ, as it were, as Botero seems to have spent a good deal of time in Sicily. There is a collection of his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art at Palermo too. He has a most distinctive style and it is very easy to recognize his work that his highly realistic and instantly recognizable. And so we had this lovely bonus art exhibition too as part of our tickets—which was lovely. Each sculpture was enclosed in a plexiglass case to protect it while allowing easy viewing.

Return to Agrigento:

Having seen the highlights of the Valley of the Temples, I really did feel as if I was walking in the year 500 BC and not in 2026 AD. The ambience is highly evocative and is reinforced by the sparse vegetation mainly in the form of low-growing olive trees. But I have to say again that the heat and humidity were doing a number on me and I felt deeply fatigued. It was with gratitude that I felt the sightseeing was over and we could return to our hotel and get some much-needed rest.

Well, we were told to wait for Line Number 1 bus—but when it arrived at the bus stop, the driver told us to wait for Line Number 2. This took ages to arrive, but finally it did. And when we hopped on, guess what? We went on a see Agrigento Tour that took us to every corner of this city—including the beach where Llew got to see the stunning beautiful blue of the Mediterranean. I also dozed off on the bus because the journey to the City Center was so long. The driver also told us that we could then take the Green Line to get back to the Duomo and our Liola B and B from the bus depot. That meant waiting for another 20 minutes for the bus—not a picnic in the heat, I can assure you. But eventually, that bus came too and we reached Liola just grateful to be back and to have the chance to rest.

And rest we did! When we had napped for a bit, Alfonson returned to the B and B to ask if we were ready. He was willing to give us a ride to the next item on our agenda: a visit to the home of Luigi Pirandello.

Visiting the Home of Nobel Laureate Luigi Pirandello:

Luigi Pirandello is one of Italy’s best-known writers. While he wrote in many forms, he became famous as a playwright and his best-known work is “Six Characters in Search of an Author”. I became aware of his work through my doctoral adviser at St. John’s University in New York, the late Dr. Anne Paolucci who was a well-published Pirandello scholar and who made sure we, her students, became well acquainted with his work. So it was a no-brainer for me to decide to visit his home which is just outside Agrigento. This was very much his family home—he was born here, grew up here and after he left and went out to find his fortune in the great big world, he did return her frequently to spend time with his family.

Alfonso dropped us off and showed us where we could wait to get the bus back. It was about 4.45 pm by this time. The house itself remained open till 7.00 pm. We bought our ticket—as an educationist, I was granted free entry. Llew had to pay 7 euros to see the home and his tomb. We asked the clerk to find out what time was the last bus back to Agrigento and she told us to go ahead with the visit and she would make the inquiry.

Well, we entered the house and were only in there for two minutes when she came running out to tell us that we had just 15 minutes as the last bus would be leaving at 5.02pm. There was no way we could see anything in that time—so we simplyt decided that we would take a taxi back. This is often a problem when one does not have a car—the buses in these small remote towns are few and far between.

So, explore the house we did. Not much to see on the ground floor—just two small rooms with some audio-visual program playing on the walls. However, just when we thought this was all, we made our way to his Tomb (gravesite) by following directions. It turned out to be a long, really long, walk in the burning heat of the sun, along a walkway that snaked its way along a cliff with a sharp drop beneath us. We wondered why his gravesite was so far away from his house—it made no sense. Later, we discovered that Pirandello himself had chosen this spot in his will: under an olive tree that overlooked the hills ahead. The gravesite is really unremarkable—there is a large stone in the ground and another large boulder in front with a metallic sculpture of the twin symbols of tragedy and comedy on it. And that is it—Pirandello’s name is not even on the site!

After the long walk back along the walkway, we returned to the house—a lone house standing sentinel on the hillside. It was then that I noticed people upstairs at one of the windows and I realized that we had seen only half of the house. So, of course, we trooped up the staircase (outside the building) and arrived at the top floor—which was much more interesting. In these rooms, we saw whatr appeared to be a bedroom area and a family living space and an important room which had a Grecian Urn and another casket close to it. This Grecian urn was a family heirloom and Pirandello, who chose to be cremated, willed his ashes to be placed in it with a few more placed in another urn and buried in the site on the hillside outside. So, that was what we saw. There are also a couple of sculptured busts of Pirandello in the same house. After we took a few pictures, we made our way downstairs.

By this time, it was about 6.30pm and we needed to find a way to get back to Agrigento. I had to work my magic and get someone to give us a ride from the parking lot. Well, again, I used Google Translate and showed my written request to two sets of people, on my phone. On the third try, we found a man who took one look at the message and immediately said, Yes. His name was Leonardo—he gave us a ride back and struck up a fairly good conversation in English with us. We had a lovey time chatting with him even as we thanked him profusely for the favor. He dropped us right on Via Athena—the heart of Agrigento and with that, we began our own return to our Liola B and B by climbing the many flightw of stairs, slowly but surely, to get to our destination.

Llew said that he was keen to have a glass of wine and I remembered that Alfonso had told us that there was a bar at the end of our road—Via di Duomo—and that was what we did. We went in search of it and presto…there it was. Llew was pleased to find that they poured him the largest glass of house red wine he’d ever had! I had a beer (as I was really hot) and we also had a plate of stuffed sandwiches—with ham and cheese and spinach and cheese. And with those, Llew made a meal for himself as I still had some of my Pasta con Sarde (with Sardines) in the fridge together with some caponata. Half an hour later, after twilight had fallen over the city, we walked slowly back to our B and B I found my food in the fridge and ate it and felt quite full again.

It had been a long day and we were both ready to hit the sack really early. It was not long before we got ready for bed.

Until tomorrow, ciao…