Days 58-62: Tunisia

After a great ferry ride we arrived at the port in Tunis.

Packed, loaded and ready to go ashore.

From the deck of our ferry in the port of the Bay of Tunis.

 After a slow trip through customs we stepped out into a world of Arabic and French. This has been our first real experience where we couldn't easily communicate. After pulling out a train ticket from Italy we were pointed in the direction of the train station. After walking for a while, and seeing nothing that resembled a train station, we began to follow some guys that were dressed in uniforms that looked like they might work for the train station. After walking for a while and still not seeing anything Todd managed to ask one of them where the train station was and he motioned for us to follow him. Thankfully we eventually made it to the train. The train was packed, shoulder to shoulder, and there were lots of middle school aged kids. The girls behind me were very entertained by us and I think kept daring each other to touch me.

After catching a bus we arrived at our resort. For the price we were paying (which wasn't much), it was actually pretty nice. There was a nice beach, some good pools and the room was clean. My only complaint would be the stray cats. I don't mind them running around the resort, but I don't think they should be allowed in the dining room! They mostly stayed on the ground, but it was just gross.

Steph on the beach our first night at the "resort." She noticed a strange brown substance in the water that looked oddly familiar and Kentucky-ish.

Ah, that explains it.

We spent a couple of days relaxing and reading pool-side, but the weather wasn't hot enough to want to be in the water.

The resort pool.

Kids playing beach soccer at the resort.

One day we took the train into Tunis and spent the day wandering around the streets. There was a huge market area with narrow streets and lots of people. I thought we might not find our way out. On our way back to the resort in Gammarth, we stopped in Carthage and checked out some more old ruins.

St. Vincents, a Catholic cathedral in Tunis.

The Medina market.

Kids playing soccer in a square in front of a huge government building, name unknown. Or a mosque.

Next to the cathedral there was a large pedestrian walkway lined with trees leading from the market to the metro station, about 2 km long.

 With a large clock tower in the middle.

From Tunis to Carthage.

 Carthage Museum and Cathedral.

 Column ruins from Carthage. It is thought that Hannibal designed this portion of the city around 200 BC.

More ruins overlooking the bay.

 Ruins of a Roman villa in Carthage with a new mosque in the background.

Carthage ruins selfie.

Another day we went to Sidi Bou Said and walked around the village full of beautiful blue and white houses, with great doors. We walked down the hillside to the harbor. We visited a house called "The Family House" that the decendents of an 18th century attorney decided to turn into a museum to show a "typical" Tunisian house, complete with wax figures.

Beautiful doors!

My favorite door. I think these are the rebels of the village, almost all the others were blue.

Streets of Sidi Bou Said

A walkway in the attorney's home.

 

This depicted the day of the attorney's daughter's wedding.

It really was a beautiful house. This was the courtyard. It was partially covered by an orange tent and they served mint tea to visitors.

Wax figure of the 18th century attorney at his desk, billing time.

We had lunch and tea at a small cafe. It is thought that the artist, Paul Klee, would visit here when he lived in the town. The man at the next table was smoking a hookah.

Man working on his sailboat at the harbor.

Kids sitting on the roof of one of the houses.

We weren't really sure what this old lady was doing in the sea. Cooling off? Cleaning her feet?

Fishermen checking their nets, getting ready to head out.

Another view of the streets.

We then flew from Tunis to Barcelona on Tunisia Air, which was acually quite nice. We decided to skip France as we have both been there and we were worried the strikes might interfere in our travel. Maybe later, or next time. 

Sorrento Days 54,55,56

We left Rome and headed south to Sorrento by train via Naples. Sorrento is on the Amalfi Coast and is a small, seaside town near Pompeii.

We arrived on the night of a full moon.

Seaside view of Sorrento.

View down the main street toward the Cathedral. After Rome/Florence/Venice, it was strange, but nice to be in a city with three primary streets that were restricted to pedestrians (and scooters) most of the time we were there. We ran into a surprising number of English speaking tourists, but only one other American couple. They were from Colorado and he was a tax attorney.

View of Sorrento's harbor.

View of Sorrento from the harbor.

 And another view.

 Scooters are popular in Sorrento too.

 Outside of a wood shop where most of the carvings were of dolls, there was this life sized motorcycle. We thought about bringing it back for Chris Lewis, but could not carry it. Maybe Evan can make one?

 One day we took the short train ride to Pompeii to visit the ruins. The entire archaeological site is around 50 acres and the visiting area is approximately 11 acres. This is the Forum.

Forum ruins with Vesuvius in the background. The city was thought to have been founded in the 6th century BC. The eruption was in 79 AD. It is estimated that 20,000 people lived there at the time. The town was abandoned until 1599 when some of the city was discovered by a construction project,but the significant excavations began in the late 1700s.

 This is not a dead dog. All around the grounds there are wild dogs and visitors may make a donation to care for the dogs. The dogs were very well behaved and we never saw any dog crap, which is more than can be said about the sidewalks in Rome.

One of the plaster casts of a victim of the eruption.

 Another cast. You can see the sleeve of the person's clothing.

 Cast of a dog that is believed to have been chained at the time of the eruption.

This is a bakery with the oven in the background and a mill used to grind wheat in the foreground. From 79 AD!

 Frescoe in the Villa dei Misteri.

The streets are in remarkably good condition, You can see ruts from the wagon wheels. The large stones in the center were level with the sidewalks and used by pedestrians to cross the streets, which would have contained water and sewage. They also served as speed controls to slow down the wagons as even back then the Italians were crazy drivers.

A vineyard on the grounds with the ruins of the amphitheater in the background. Apparently, Pink Floyd performed here in the 1970s. Seriously; look it up.

From inside the ruins of the Villa dei Misteri.

There was nothing describing what this was, but we assume a battering ram?

After a few days in Sorrento/Pompeii, we took a train to Salerno where we caught a ferry to Tunis via Palermo. It was about a 26 hour ferry ride across the Mediterranean Sea to Africa.

Our accomodations were much nicer than our last ferry.

When in Rome... Days 50-53

We arrived in Rome and visited the Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum first. We took a lot of pictures and will not bore you with too many. Rome was wonderful and the people were very gracious, even though most did not speak English and our Italian was essentially non-existent.

In front of the Colosseum.

View from an entrance into the Colosseum.

Colosseum from the outside.

View of Rome.

 Another view.

And another.

The Forum ruins.

More Forum ruins.

The Forum is formal. I guess they want you to wear a tie in the restroom?

Palatine Hill and the aqueduct.

View of the Forum and Colusseum from the Palatine.

 

We then went to a Champions League Game between AS Roma and Basel. The crowd was very enthusiastic, but disappointed as AS Roma lost 3-1.

 The next day we visited Vatican City and the Vatican Museums. We were very suprised that there was NO line to get into the Vatican Museum, usually it spreads down the street and takes an hour or two. Later, when we went to the other side of the Vatican to St. Peter's Cathedral, we discovered that the Pope had been speaking at the time we were entering the museum. The most interesting and unexpected part of the museums was the modern section in which the Vatican had works by modern artisits such as Matisse, Francis Bacon, Max Ernst, Diego Rivera, etc.

Inside the Vatican.

 St, Peter's Square and the line to get in.

 Statue inside the Vatican. It may explain a lot.

The Vatican Museum has an Egyptian section with this mummy. None of the museum guards could tell me which Pope this mummy was. They also could not tell me where the section regarding the Spanish Inquisition was in the Museum. They seemed surprised I asked, like they were not expecting it.

All around Rome there are public drinking fountains and the water is supposed to be very potable.

We also visited the Trevi Fountain.

And the Spanish Steps with lots of people sitting on them.

 

After the artisitic discussion with the information guy, we located the statue of Romulus and Remus and the She Wolf.

The next day we visited a large park on the outskirts of the city that was built in the 1800s. From the late 1920s to 1943, it was Mussolini's home.

Mussolini had a riding ring built and there were several photographs of him using the grounds. He also had a bomb shelter installed in the basement.

 Steph trusted the water system in the drinking fountains.