Page 95 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

follows the southern coast onto of medieval and baroque Ragusa’s magnificent
Porto Empedocle and then, buildings. historic centre.
10km inland, Agrigento’s hilltop Like other towns in
centre. In all, it’s about 62km. 54 p98 the region, Ragusa Ibla
The Drive » For this 133km leg collapsed after the 1693
TRIP HIGHLIGHT head back to the SS115, which earthquake. But the
8 Agrigento veers from inland farmland to aristocracy, ever impracti-
brief encounters with the sea.
Seen from a distance, Past the town of Gela, you will cal, rebuilt their homes
on exactly the same spot.
Agrigento’s unsightly head into more hilly country, Grand baroque churches
apartment blocks loom including a steep climb past and palazzi line the
incongruously on the hill- Comiso, followed by a straight twisting, narrow lanes,
side, distracting attention shot along the SP52 to Ragusa. which then open suddenly
from the splendid Valley onto sun-drenched piaz-
of Temples below. In the zas. Palm-planted Piazza
Valley, the mesmeris- 9 Ragusa del Duomo, the centre of
ing ruins (Valle dei Templi; Set amid the rocky peaks town, is dominated by ITALY 6 WONDERS OF ANCIENT SICILY
www.parcovalledeitempli.it; northwest of Modica, the 18th-century baroque
adult/reduced €10/5, incl Ragusa has two faces. Cattedrale di San Giorgio
Museo Archeologico €13.50/7; Atop the hill sits Ragusa (Piazza Duomo; h10am-
h8.30am-7pm year-round, Superiore, a busy town 12.30pm & 4-7pm Jun-Sep,
plus 7.30-9.30pm Mon-Fri, 7.30- with all the trappings reduced hours rest of year),
11.30pm Sat & Sun Jul–early of a modern provincial with its magnificent
Sep) of ancient Akragras capital, while etched into neoclassical dome and
boast the best-preserved the hillside is Ragusa stained-glass windows.
Doric temples outside of Ibla. This sloping area of
Greece. tangled alleyways, grey The Drive » Follow the SS115
The ruins are spread stone houses and baroque for this winding, up-and-down
over a 1300-hectare site palazzi (mansions) is 15km drive through rock-littered
which is divided into east- hilltops to Modica.
ern and western halves.
Head first to the eastern
zone, where you’ll find DETOUR:
the three best temples: VILLA ROMANA DEL
the Tempio di Hera (aka
the Tempio di Giunone), CASALE
Tempio di Ercole and, Start: 8 Agrigento
most spectacularly, the Near the town of Piazza Armerina in central Sicily,
Tempio della Concordia the stunning 3rd-century Roman Villa Romana
(Temple of Concord). This, del Casale (%0935 68 00 36; www.villaromanadelcasale.
the only temple to survive it; adult/reduced €10/5; h9am-6pm Apr-Oct, to 4pm
relatively intact, was built Nov-Mar) is thought to have been the country
around 440 BC and was retreat of Diocletian’s co-emperor Marcus Aurelius
converted into a Christian Maximianus. Buried under mud in a 12th-century
church in the 6th century. flood, the villa remained hidden for 700 years before
Uphill from the ruins, its floor mosaics – considered some of the finest
Agrigento’s medieval cen- in existence – were discovered in the 1950s. They
tre also has its charms, cover almost the entire villa floor and are considered
with a 14th-century unique for their natural, narrative style.
cathedral and a number

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