agrigento

On Sundays, I was told by the bus station folks, there is no way to get from Piazza Armerina to Agrigento. There used to be a bus on Sundays, but it doesn't exist any more, nor does any bus from the (slightly larger) Enna. Indeed the only bus out of Piazza Armerina on Sundays goes to Enna Bassa, served neither by any more promising bus, nor by trains, which stop 10 km away. There was one train in the late afternoon, so I figured I'd just take the bus to Enna Bassa and walk or take a taxi. But, when I asked for directions to the station, the friendly station folks in Enna Bassa walked me toward a bus going directly to Agrigento, having come from Rome, but all the while telling me that it was impossible for me to take that bus - it wasn't allowed to take on passengers after Rome. Nonetheless, I impossibly rode the nonexistent bus to Agrigento, and arrived 8 hours before I expected to.

I had never seen a vase like this; it's a much more nuanced style, a bit more like sculpture. Next to Hermes was an even more interesting, but, alas, paler figure whose picture I couldn't take.



Apparently, this (the so-called Temple of Concord) is a hot spot for weddings. It only survived as well as it did because it was turned into a Christian Church. It's constructed in local stone which is naturally the color you see here, which is a bit off-putting at close range.



The appeal of the temple of concord prompted someone to start reconstructing another temple which had fallen down completely. I rather prefer the partial reconstruction.


Though this is really how a ruin should look. This one was never completed - Carthage sacked Akragas, and tore it down. It would have been the largest Doric temple ever.