Salvatore Quasimodo was born in Modica, near Ragusa, in 1901. He probably first became acquainted with Agrigento as a child when his father was a stationmaster in the nearby railway stations of Comitini, Aragona-Caldare, Gela, Acquaviva Platani.
His childhood memories, re-lived with the emotions aroused by his classical readings and translations of Greek lyric poets, engendered two poems: Agrigentum Road (Strada di Agrigento), included in his collection Nuove Poesie (1942), and Temple of Zeus at Agrigento, in the collection Il Falso e vero verde (1954).
In 1959, Quasimodo attended the cerimony for the transfer of Luigi Pirandello's ashes to his burial in the Kaos district.