Palermo and Pompeii

Saturday we were in Palermo, Sicily.  The morning was rainy and we had nothing planned, so we waited until after lunch to venture into the city.  We made our way to the Piazza Pretoria with its fountain.

We then walked to the Quattro Canti (four corners) which may have been the highlight with its monumental buildings.

We eventually made it to the cathedral.

We then headed back to the ship, passing the Teatro Massimo on the way.

It was a nice 2 hour walk in the fine afternoon weather.

Sunday we were in Napoli, Italy (not to be confused with Naples, Florida or Naples, Long Beach).  We opted for an excursion to Pompeii.  We had been there years ago and decided to go back to see how it had changed.  Not much!  We had a good guided tour around the city that had been destroyed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE.

 

That's Mount Vesuvius in the background of the following photos.

After the excursion, we went into Napoli to have the obligatory Margherita pizza for lunch.

The evening brought another lovely sunset.

Today we are in Civativecchia, yet again.  Then we'll have one more port in Italy before heading to France and Spain.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry

Tunisia

Yesterday, Friday, was our first visit to Tunisia and it was packed with history.  We took the Best of Tunis excursion which was a full day.  We were docked in La Goulette (which is a good distance from the city of Tunis).

Tunisia has a very long history starting with its founding in 800 BCE by the Phoenicians followed by the Romans, the Arabs, the Ottomans, and the French before gaining it's independence.  We visited several of the historic sites in the Carthage area and I took way too many photos.  I will just throw a few of them in here.

At these sites it was interesting to see all of the pot shards lying around.

Just riding around, there were ruins everywhere.

We also visited the Medina of Tunis (not the Mdina of Malta where our granddaughter is getting married!).  There we walked through the town and the casbah.

Eventually we were taken to the carpet showroom 😒.  No, we did not buy any.

But, from the terrace above the shop we had good views of a mosque, a church and a synagogue.  Tunisia seems to be an inclusive culture.

                                        

                                             

We were then taken to a lunch of couscous which is apparently a must eat in Tunisia.  After lunch, we went to the hilltop village of Sidi Bou Siad where we had a short walk around..

After the walk around, the guide offered some free time or we could accompany him to see some Punic artifacts.  That's the option we chose.  It turned out that the so-called artifacts were copies sold in a shop.  We bought nothing.

It was a good excursion despite the 8 hour history lesson and the so-so lunch.  We are glad that we can now check Tunisia off of our list of places to visit (it was the 97th country that we've visited).  But, to be honest, it is not a place that we would go out of our way to return to.

Today, Saturday, we are in Palermo, Sicily.  More on this visit in the next entry.

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry