Fruits of Agrigento: a scarf in the Valley of the Gods

Agrigento, in Sicilian Giurgenti, was founded around 580 B.C. by people of Rhodian-Cretan origin.

Numerous peoples have settled on the city's territory, leaving deep traces in its thousand-year history and culture.

In one of his poems, the Greek poet Pindar described Agrigento as the most beautiful of all the cities built by men. It was the 5th century B.C. and the then Greek colony in Sicily was experiencing its moment of greatest splendour, before the decline that began with the start of the Punic Wars.

Agrigentum is the Latinised name of the city, conquered by the Romans during the wars with Carthage. Later the city was dominated by the Arabs, under whom it remained until it was conquered by the Normans in 1089 AD.

Famous worldwide for the Doric temples that stand in the sun-drenched countryside of the so-called Valley of the Temples, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, Agrigento is also the birthplace of Luigi Pirandello, as well as contemporaries Leonardo Sciascia and Andrea Camilleri.