The document provides information about the city of Agrigento, Italy, known for its Valley of the Temples archaeological site consisting of ancient Greek temples from the 5th century BC. It discusses several of Agrigento's cultural festivals and events, including the Almond Blossom Festival held in the Valley of the Temples each spring. It also mentions the cult of Saint Calogero and describes Agrigento's coastal landscape and famous Sicilian cuisine featuring Arab and Greek influences. The document highlights two important authors and thinkers from Agrigento - the playwright Luigi Pirandello who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and novelist Leonardo Sciascia who wrote about the Sicilian Mafia
2. Agrigento Agrigento is a city on the southern coast of Sicily , Italy , and capital of the province of Agrigento . It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas, in Greek, Agrigentum in Latin and Kerkent in Arabic , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden age of Ancient Greece .
3. Agrigento is famous for its: Valley of the Temples Almond Blossom Festival Saint Calogero’s cult Wonderful coast Taste and flavours
4. The valley of the Temples The Valle dei Templi (English: Valley of the Temples ,) is an archaeological site in Agrigento (ancient Greek Akragas ), Sicily , southern Italy . It is one of the most outstanding examples of Greater Greece art and architecture, and is one of the main attractions of Sicily as well as a national monument of Italy. The area was included in the UNESCO Heritage Site list in 1997. Much of the excavation and restoration of the temples was due to the efforts of archaeologist (1783-1863), who was the Duke of Serradifalco from 1809 through 1812. The term "valley" is a misnomer, the site being located on a ridge outside the town of Agrigento.
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6. The Almond Blossom Festival The candid closing of the almonds tree announces in "Valle dei Templi" the return of the spring. Agrigento geographic and historical center of the Mediterranean, becomes also the fulcrum of the concord and the culture of the people. The spirit of joy, peace and brotherhood who flutters in the ancient Akragas during the "Sagra del Mandorlo in Fiore" exceeds every racial or ideological barrier. An appointment that is repeated gives beyond average century and that it has become a point of meeting between the people of the earth. History, folklore and art, are melted harmoniously during one of the more famous folkloristic festivities of the world. The "Sagra del Mandorlo in Fiore" is born in 1934 to Naro from an idea of the Conte Dr. Alfonso Gaetani, the scope was that one to exalt the spring agrigentins giving a day of festivity and carefree to all the peasants of "Valle del Paradiso".
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8. During passing of the years the Sagra increased its horizons collecting under the splendid scene of Goes them of the Templi the people of all races and the cultures. The beginning of the Sagra is much evocative one and regards the ceremony of the Torch of the friendship that consists in the ignition of the tripode of the friendship, place in front of the "Tempio della Concordia", to the presence of the representatives of all the people participants to the Festival.
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10. Saint Calogero's cult The feast of San Calogero takes place between the first and the second Sunday of July every year. San Calogero is the most venerated Saint of Agrigento although he’s not the patron Saint of the town. According to some people he came originally from Turkey,according to others he was from Carthage. He’s a black Saint and his name in Greek means “monk”. He lived during the prosecutions against the Christians between the IVth and the Vth century and he came to Sicily where he took refugee in a cave on Mount Kronio near Sciacca, a spa centre 50 km to the west of Agrigento. There he healed the inhabitants by using the local thermal water. Both in Agrigento and in Naro, a town to the east of Agrigento he lived in a grotto by the present sanctuaries dedicated to him. He spent his last days on Mount Kronio in Sciacca and according to tradition his only companion was a female dear which provided him milk. He was sick then and that was the only food he had. Unfortunately one day the dear was killed by a hunter who after finding the old lonely man decided to become a monk himself and to take care of him until he died.
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12. The veneration of the Agrigentinians finds the most expressive moment during the procession which winds its way along the historical centre, the statue of the saint is carried on the shoulders of those who devoted to him. Citizens usually throw “muffuletti di san Calò” (San Calò bread buns) from windows. These are traditional buns made with sesame and fennel seed. The whole procession is accompanied with the frenetic rhythm of the beating drum. The traditional story tells of an elderly religious man who, during a terrible epidemic, crossed the town asking for bread for the sick, who were gathered outside the city walls, accompanied by the heat of a drum. It is a very sentimental celebration, original in its kind, a kermess in which great religious faith mixes with moments of paganism, a typical example of folklore and “Agrigentinian” culture.
13. Taste and flavours The Sicilian cuisine shows traces of all the cultures which established themselves on the island over the last two millennia. Although its cuisine undoubtably has a predominantly Italian base , Sicilian food also has Spanish , Greek and Arab influences.
14. Sweets are another specialty; examples include: frutta martorana , pignolata , buccellato , cannolo siciliano , granita , and cassata siciliana . Granita is particularly famous and well known. It is a semi-frozen dessert of sugar, water, and flavorings originally from the island, and is commonly associated from Catania , even though there is no evident proof that it hails from the particular Sicilian city. Related to sorbet and italian ice , in most of Sicily it has a coarser, more crystalline texture. Food writer Jeffrey Steingarten says that "the desired texture seems to vary from city to city" on the island; on the west coast and in Palermo , it is at its chunkiest, and in the east it is nearly as smooth as sorbet . This is largely the result of different freezing techniques: the smoother types are produced in a gelato machine , while the coarser varieties are frozen with only occasional agitation, then scraped or shaved to produce separated crystals.
15. Culture and literature Luigi Pirandello (Italian pronunciation: [ lu' iʤi piran'dɛllo ] ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist , novelist , and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian . Typical for Pirandello is to show how art or illusion mixes with reality and how people see things in a very different way — words are unreliable and reality is at the same time true and false. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners for Theatre of the Absurd . "A man will die, a writer, the instrument of creation: but what he has created will never die! And to be able to live for ever you don't need to have extraordinary gifts or be able to do miracles. Who was Sancho Panza? Who was Prospero? But they will live for ever because — living seeds — they had the luck to find a fruitful soil, an imagination which knew how to grow them and feed them, so that they will live for ever." (from Six Characters in Search of an Author , 1921)
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17. Culture and literature Leonardo Sciascia , was borned in Racalmuto (Agrigento)A number of his books, such as The Day of the Owl ( Il giorno della civetta ) and Equal Danger ( Il contesto ), demonstrate how the Mafia manages to sustain itself in the face of the anomie inherent in Sicilian life. He presented a forensic analysis of the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro , a prominent Christian Democrat , in his book The Moro Affair . Sciascia's work is intricate and displays a longing for justice while attempting to show how corrupt Italian society had become and remains. His linking of politicians, intrigue, and the Mafia gave him a high profile, which was very much at odds with his private self. This resulted in his becoming widely disliked for his criticism of Giulio Andreotti , then Prime Minister, for his lack of action towards freeing Moro and answering the demands of the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigade). Sciascia's books are rarely characterized by a happy end and by justice for the ordinary man. Prime examples of this are Equal Danger , where the police's best detective is drafted to Sicily to investigate a spate of murders of judges. Focussing on the inability of authorities to handle such investigation into the corruptions, Sciascia's hero is finally thwarted. Sciascia wrote of his unique Sicilian experience, linking families with political parties, the treachery of alliances and allegiances and the calling of favours that result in outcomes that are not for the benefit of society, but of those individuals who are in favour.
22. Events at Garibaldi School Tree Festival Welcoming Festival Rights of Childhood Women’s Festival 150° Anniversary United Italy (with the Italian Ministry of Justice) Day of Memory Obesity Day Music Festival … and others again!
