For literary enthusiasts, one of the focal points of Agrigento tourism is the House of Luigi Pirandello, the famous Sicilian novelist, short story writer and dramatist.
The house in which Pirandello was born is a rural house, built around the end of the 1600s, located in the countryside, just outside the main city; it is found on a plateau that drops dramatically down to the sea and which is covered with olive groves and oak trees.
Though it is a rural dwelling, it is by no means humble, as both Pirandello’s father and mother came from well-to-do families. The house, or villa, was also used by the family to take refuge from the serious epidemic of cholera that ran rampant in Sicily in 1867.
The house was damaged in 1944 due to the explosion of a nearby ammunitions depot that belonged to American soldiers, though it was declared a national monument in 1949 and work began to restore the house and its grounds.
The rooms that give onto the countryside house a vast collection of photographs, reviews and honors, first edition books with autographs, portraits, posters announcing Pirandello’s most famous plays given in some of the most prestigious theaters in the world, and many other items.
Occasionally, the house also hosts temporary exhibits dedicated to Pirandello.
Finally, you can visit the area in wich stayed a centuries-old pine tree a ways from the house where Pirandello used to sit and meditate, paint and write; this is the final resting place of the author.