Address: Contrada Maddalusa, 92100 Valle dei Templi, Agrigento, Italy
Phone: +39 0922 511061
Website: www.bagliodellaluna.com

The natural elegance of Sicily is evident in the rural setting offered by Hotel Baglio della Luna, a rare example of ancient Sicilian memory at the doors of the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. A courtyard circumscribed by high walls, guest quarters, and an old tower immersed in a natural and exuberant landscape evoking a Greek and Arabic past, places that invite for an authentic experience.

“Dehors” is the refined and elegant restaurant of the Hotel, open to guests and the public and renowned throughout Italy for a cuisine that goes from the traditional to the most innovative, always featuring Sicilian elements and offering a carefully selected wine list showcasing Sicilian Greats, the best Italian as well as French and International wines.

A sample menu includes:
Rosa di capesante (scallops) and small shrimp on cannellini beans with candied lemon in a crustacean sauce with sea urchins
Mezzelune (filled egg pasta) with swordfish and lobster tartar and soup made with small tomatoes and basil
Grilled tuna on spiced couscous with a pepper fondue and cream sauce made with Pachino tomatoes and mint
Iced cream of figs and almonds with Marsala
Nero dei Greci Martorana
Cerasuolo of Vittoria Valle dell’Acate
Chardonnay Planeta

Hotel Baglio della Luna is located in Contrada Maddalusa, among the suggestive Valley of the Temples and the beautiful San Leone beaches, at 7 km from the center of Agrigento.

In an enchanting place, in the mist of the natural beauty of the hills that Goethe enthusiastically described as ” …Never before had I seen the splendor of spring as I did this morning at dawn… From the window I can make out the soft sloping of the old city with its gardens and vineyards…”  and the blue sea, Hotel Baglio della Luna has one of the best locations for a 4-star hotel at Agrigento. It is the ideal starting point to visit Agrigento or Valley of the Temples and to spend marvelous days at the beach.

Known as Akragas by the Greek, while the Romans called it Agrigentum, the Arabs Kerkent and the Normans Girgenti, Agrigento is set between Colle di Girgenti and Rupe Atenea, “the most beautiful city for mortals” according to Pindaro, a Greek poet of the 5th-century B.C. This city is the repository of so many cultures and artistic expression evident in the narrow streets and paths of the center and around Via Atenea where many important noble palaces and beautiful churches are found. There are many characteristic sacred buildings as there are many superimposed architectural styles, with Norman and baroque influences, such as can be admired in Cattedrale di San Gerlando. The Medieval and very beautiful Monastero di Santo Spirito, which these days houses a civic museum, is a large multi storey structure of many spaces, with a portal done in Chiaramontano style and gorgeous color effect created by the alternate use of limestone and sandstone and by the original defensive facade brightened by refined monofore and bifore small windows.
In Contrada Caos you will find the “secluded house” where Luigi Pirandello lived during his childhood and teenage years and nowadays functions as a museum. The pathway next to the house leads to the “lonely pine”, so many times evoked by the playwright, and which stands tall in the suggestive landscape.

The Valley of the Temples is an overwhelming sight of lush vegetation, and from among the “ancient almond tree forest”, so dear to Pirandello, appear the shapes, memories, and perfect balance of the Temples which the Greek erected as bastions of art and civilization. The pinnacle of the Dioscuri temple, symbol of Valle and of Agrigento, is the prelude to the enormous Temple of Zeus, the imposing Temple of Eracle, the delightfully elegant Temple of Concordia, and the Temple of Juno, unique in its search for artistic perfection.
Between January and February, the white and the pink of the almonds in bloom are the first stirrings of Agrigento spring giving the valley an air of unforgettable charm.