This was part of our Sicily (2026) trip. We arrived in Agrigento the first day before 1pm after our Magna Via Francigena walk, and took a bus ride to Catania the second day afternoon. So, we didn’t spend 2 full days in Agrigento.
(Click here to see all our trips.)
Day 1: Valley of the Temples, Pietro Griffo Archaeological Museum
We arrived in Agrigento before 1pm and went immediately to the bus station to purchase tomorrow’s bus tickets to Catania (13.1 euros each). Afterwards, we walked to the Agrigento Cathedral to find out how to get our MVF certificates. However, the cathedral was closed until 4pm.
I suggested that we go to Valley of the Temples for sightseeing. Though there were many taxis at the train station, there was none at the cathedral. After checking Google Map, we realized that tonight’s hotel Hotel della Valle was located on the way to Valley of the Temples, so we walked to the hotel first. We walked past a downtown shopping area with many high-end stores, but the stores were all closed in the afternoon as well. Only a few cafes were open for business.
We checked into Hotel della Valle. It’s a 4-star hotel, and our room had ocean view! After some hot tea in the room, we walked to Valley of the Temples. Some temples were visible from the road, and they looked impressive!
We only planned to buy Valley & Museum combo tickets, but the person at the ticket office convinced us to buy a complete package with 3 additional sites including the cathedral.
“We need to go to the cathedral anyway,” said Rei.
The first temple we saw was Temple of Juno (Tempio di Giunone). The temple was only partially standing, but it looked magnificent nonetheless. Then we walked past a section of ancient walls with great ocean views.
Temple of Concordia (Tempio della Concordia) was one of the best preserved Greek temples in the world! I thought the temple was a reconstruction, but I later found out that it only went through minor restoration work.
We walk past a few other sites to reach Temple of Olympian Zeus. The entire site was in a ruined state, but a restoration of a stone giant (called Telamon) onsite looked really impressive!
We also wanted to visit Pietro Griffo Archaeological Museum, which would close at 7pm. Therefore, we only spent about 1.5 hours in the valley before power walking to the museum.
The museum was also on the same archaeological compound. There was an ancient agora ruin outside of the museum building. The museum itself was relatively small, but it had impressive collections.
There were many beautiful Greek vases in pristine conditions. We also loved intricate and colorful mosaic works. The Triskeles Bowl showed a representation of the Trinacria, the famous 3-legged symbol of Sicily.
There’s another Telamon figure inside the museum. A model of Temple of Olympian Zeus showed how the temple would have looked like in its ancient glory. I wanted to spend more time in the museum, but Rei was tired, so we ended up only spending 30 minutes there.
We were both exhausted by then. So, we grabbed a to-go pizza on our way back to the hotel for dinner.
Day 2: Santa Maria dei Greci, Agrigento Cathedral
Hotel della Valle had an extensive breakfast buffet. There were scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, bacons, sausages, croissants, many different kind of cakes, cereals, fruits and drinks. Rei and I both enjoyed the food. However, since we’re taking a 12:00 noon bus to Catania, and we wanted to do some sightseeing, we couldn’t linger.
Our complete passes included visits to the cathedral, a church and a museum. The cathedral wouldn’t open until 9:30am, but Santa Maria dei Greci church opened at 8:30am, so we would go there first. I considered taking a taxi, but Rei said it’s not far, and we could walk. So, we started today’s whirlwind sightseeing.
We first walked past a park. I spotted a pair of blue, yellow and white Eurasian Blue Tits. They were the most beautiful birds I had seen on this trip. Though we saw a lot of birds in Sicily, they were just common doves, pigeons, hooded crows, yellowed-billed choughs, sparrows and magpies.
On the way to the church, we climbed through a section of colorful stairs. When we arrived at the church, it was only 9am. We saw that the gate was open, and there were already several visitors inside, so we entered too.
Though the small church was elegant, the most interesting aspect was its history. Santa Maria dei Greci was built upon an ancient Greek temple of Athena. There were many glass panels on the church floor, revealing the temple ruins below.
We were surprised that no one checked our tickets. When we were ready to leave, we realized that the “exit” was actually the entrance! The lady there scanned our tickets and regaled us with a brief history of the place.
We walked to the cathedral, and had to wait a few minutes for it to open. Two Canadians and we were the earliest visitors. We climbed the first tower, which wasn’t very high. When we reached the top, we were rewarded with a magnificent view of the cathedral interior and its beautiful wooden ceiling.
The second tower offered a closer view of the bell tower, but it wasn’t anything special.
The church altar and side chapels were ornate and opulent! We took many photos. There’s also an entrance to see some sarcophagi.
The main purpose for us to visit the cathedral was to get Magna Via Francigena (MVF) certificates (testimonium). We were told that for that we had to go to the museum a few doors down. Rei and I went to the museum to show our pilgrim passports with stamps and paid 5 euros each to get the certificates. Then we realized that the testimonium would award us free entrances to the cathedral, church and museum. We didn’t need to purchase the complete tickets!
When we were about to leave, an Italian couple entered to get their certificates. We met the couple a few times on the way. Besides two German hikers we met the first day, the Italian couple were basically the only other walkers we had met on MVF. Either MVF wasn’t a popular route, or we were still too early in the season.
We walked back to the hotel, and saw another statue that looked like Sciascia. But that turned out to be Andrea Camilleri, another famous writer that I didn’t know.
The hotel arranged a taxi to take us and our luggage to the bus station. We thought we were going on a Sais bus parking in front of the ticket office. It ended up that we had to wait at an open space in front of Cine Astor. There were already some people waiting there for the bus. This ended our Agrigento sightseeing.
Amy 'n Rei 