Piccolo Gellia B&B, Agrigento

Piccolo Gellia lies right in the town centre, on the main road, Via Atenea. It is the first floor of a 19th centurys house, in a typical ancient apartment that has been recently renovated.In the fifth century, at the time of the Greeks, Gellia was a well-known character of Agrigento, who became famous for his legendary hospitality. About that, the historicist Diodoro Siculo tells that every evening he used to send his slaves at the gates of Akragas to see if there was anybody who needed to be welcomed. It is told that once he even gave hospitality to five hundred soldiers from Gela, forced to remain in town because of the bad weather: he fed them and even gave them new tunics and cloaks.In more recent times, and till not so many years ago, Gellia gave his name to an important hotel of Agrigento: the Grand Hotel Gellia et Grande Bretagne; it lied in the very heart of the town, on the main road, and confined with Vicolo Gozza, where our house, now the B&B, lies. Thats why we called our B&B Piccolo Gellia- which means little Gellia-as to resume the sentiments from which it rises, sentiments of welcome and hospitality.