So much has been said, so much has been written about what are reputed to be the finest examples of Greek archeology anywhere- including Greece. So, Agrigento was one of our major ambitions for the trip. Weather forecasts for fine weather dawned true, and we wandered up the by now familiar road along Via Lincoln to the station for the three hour ride to Agrigento.

On arrival we got a coffee and bus tickets for the trip out to the ruins at a very friendly bar, right at the station, and were given directions to the (unmarked) bus stop.

Let me begin with our experience of the ruins themselves, then I'll come back to make a few observations about the logistics of the visit. For those who can't stand suspense, yes, this will move from the sublime to the ridiculous!

The ruins of the Valley of the Temples actually run along a ridge, and would have made an imposing prospect to anyone approaching by sea. Agrigento was a major city in Magna Graecia, the extended Greek footprint in the Mediterranean. Its history as a city goes back into the sixth century BC, and the myth is that it was founded by Daedalus and Icarus after their flight from Crete, but in fact it was settlers from Rhodes and Crete.

The visit took us past the ruins of over half a dozen temples, mainly Greek, some Roman. Among these the Temples of Concordia, Juno and Hercules are stand outs, given the wonderful state of preservation of significant parts of each.

This is not the place for the travelogue - check out Wikipedia for the overview. Suffice it to say that the weather gods were kind, and the wonderful warm sun on a cool day cast the buildings in a very photogenic light - hence all the attached pictures.

OK - now for the logistics. ( ( None of which can in any way diminish the wonderful experience of the visit!). From the moment we left the bar at the station, we were on a journey of discovery. First of all, the bus stop was unmarked. There was a small shelter and a few it. We know the bus numbers we needed, and also where we should get off. As soon as we got to the bus stop, one of the buses we could use arrived. I asked the driver to let us know when we got to the site, which, in fairness, after about a 20 minute ride, he did.

Things looked promising. We were right at what was very clearly a gate to the site. We could already see the temple of Heracles. Looking good. Except this was only an exit , even though there was clearly a staffed gatehouse about 20 metres inside. We found a sign saying the entrance was three hundred metres along the road, so we set off along the road, through a narrow cutting with no pedestrian walkway. At this stage we thought I might proceed to the ticket office ( which wasn't far according to the sign! ) and come back with tickets which we might be able to use to get in the exit. Anne went back, I forged on. About 500 metres along the road was a big roundabout with a sign (small, unassuming) saying the entrance and ticket office was actually 400 more metres along to the right. So, I went back to get Anne, and retraced the first five hundred metres before doing the additional four hundred, where we found the ticket office. Here, it must be said, the staff were lovely, many Italians have told us how much the idea of Australia appeals to them.

We received an audio guide and a map. The commentary began at the furthest point of the linear walk from the entrance! Having tried doing the tour backwards, not surprisingly, after we did step 12 where, not surprisingly step 11 said we would see something in step 12, we decided to walk right out to the far end, and do the tour in the right order! In order to get back to our bus stop, we then walked past it ( inside the site) dropped off the audioguide, then walked back again ( inside the site to avoid the traffic). After a false alarm, when we thought our bus had sailed past us, we got back to the station in good order and had a lovely lunch of fagottini - buns with local fillings. (A: Mick is being kind to me- he volunteered to return the audio guides while I waited in the sun- but in the one spot in the complex where there were no seats.)

So, let's see how many ways you can stuff up an organisation. Make the starting bus stop a secret. Put the stop at the site as far as possible from the entrance. Run the tour backwards. Don't have a footpath. Keep signage to a minimum.

Maybe we need to clone some of the Agrigento founding fathers to put things in order. I suspect they'd make a better job of it than their descendants!