It was about a 2 hour drive to Agrigento and so we decided to get on the road early. The trip down was ok except for some roadworks sending us off on a wrong detour. This resulted in us hitting some local traffic; a flock of sheep! Google maps got a bit confused it seemed but we helped it along and eventually got on the correct road.

We made it into Agrigento by midday and were able to check into our hotel; once we found it that is! Check the photos and you’ll see what I mean. Euterpe LHT is a quite lovely, but small, boutique hotel located just a 5 minute walk from the old town. Our room was very nice and of a good size with a view out to the ocean.

It was 1.30 pm by the time we made it up the old town and we’d been advised by our friendly concierge to take the small tourist bus that goes a route past all the key sights. Unfortunately, we waited over 30 minutes for this bus but it didn’t ever arrive. We were a bit stuck then because everything was closed for siesta and, as a result, there wasn’t much point walking around. So back to the hotel we went until 3:30 pm. Siesta is quite a problem when you only have one day in a location and, note to self, this needs to be factored in to future travel plans.

The main reason for including Agrigento in our trip was to visit the archeological site of the Valley of the Temples. I had initially planned to spend the afternoon there but our friendly concierge advised us not to get out there until the early evening, because it would be too hot, so we booked tickets online for a 5:30 pm entry. That left us a small window, after 4pm and hopefully after siesta finished, to head back to the old town for a bit of a wander.

Heading back to the old town after 4 pm made little difference, though, as nearly all the shops remained shut. We strolled up and down the Main Street and had a lemon granita but that was about it. Agrigento old town is spread along the side of a hill with one or two main streets, that parallel and lengthways, being connected by a maze of winding alleys, many with steep staircases. A visit to the Cathedral would have involved a 10 minute walk and, apparently, hundreds of stairs so we gave that a miss and headed back to our hotel to get the car for the 10 minute drive out to the Valley of the Temples.

The Valley of the Temples is reported as being the most impressive complex of Greek buildings outside of Greece. It dates back to the 5th century BC with the buildings being progressively destroyed by the Carthaginians, in 406 BC, the Christians, in the 6th century and then by subsequent earthquakes. However, nine of the ten temples are still visible today and they were very impressive and we spent a good 2 ¹/₂ hours trekking through the valley inspecting them all. Most of the sites are aligned along a roadway that extends through the valley for about 3.5 km. You can park at either end but, essentially, you walk all the way from one end to the other and then back to your car. One advantage of waiting until 5:30 pm for our visit was that we saw all of the sites in the relative cool of late afternoon  for the outward journey and, by the time of our return, the sun had set and so we saw all the sights again but this time as they were illuminated. One of the most impressive structures was the Temple of Concordia. Apparently this is one of the best preserved Doric temples in the world! Viewing this piece of amazing history, before and after sunset, was rather special.

It was 8 pm by the time we got back to the car and we were both pretty exhausted. Luckily for us there was a little pizza restaurant just downstairs and next door to our hotel so we called in there for late pizza dinner.

We greatly enjoyed our short visit to Agrigento and I would highly recommend our lovely boutique hotel, Euterpe LHT (the LHT stands for Luxury Home for Travellers). There are only five rooms so book in early and ask for either room 1 or 2 as they have balconies with a great view out to the ocean.  The other thing that was nice about the area was that there was an abundance of young people, of school age and university age. It made such a pleasant change from some of the towns we have visited where they were mostly oldies!