Agrigento

Strewn like a snake through the dusty valleys of southern Sicily, the town of Agrigento is a mythical place of crumbling Greek temples and looming Doric peristyles, all framed by the gnarled trunks of ancient olive trees and the winding mountain roadways that weave their way through this hilly section of the island towards the Mediterranean Sea.

While the modern town here does play host to a charming medieval core, complete with the usual tight-knit cobblestone lanes and pretty Duomo, a majority of its space is given over to purring Vespa scooters and white-washed condominiums. Most visitors though make straight for the UNESCO-attested enclave of the Valley of the Temples, where the crumbling relics of Ancient Akragas represent some of the most startling Greek ruins in all of Italy. Here, ask your Agrigento tour guide for a walking route that encompasses all the major ‘must sees’—from the 2,600-year-old Temple of Herakles, to the colossal remnants of the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the striking dedications to Juno Lacinia, complementing it with a visit to the Museo Archeologico on route back to the city.