A stop in Tunisia

Here we are at the last stop of our cruise around the Mediterranean: Tunisia, our second taste of Africa. As always a coach awaits us at the port of Tunis, complete with a guide who today will take us to see the Bardo Museum, Carthage and the little village of Sidi Bou Said. Unfortunately the ship arrived in port a little late and, on top of that, the rigmarole of getting our passports stamped was a real ordeal: we stayed queuing inside the ship's lounges for about half an hour before all reaching the room where the Tunisian authorities checked and stamped our passports......and all the lost time won't be made up, since the ship won't delay its departure. So our Tunisian day will be a little shorter than planned....

As soon as we disembark, we immediately notice how different this country is from Libya, which we left only the day before: here tourism is highly developed, there are souvenir sellers all over the port quay who have set up makeshift stalls and sell everything! From the windows, Tunis appears to us as a very lively, modern city: fountains, advertising billboards, cars, tree-lined avenues... and lots and lots of people out on the streets. We see elegantly dressed men and women strolling calmly in “Western” clothes, just like in any of our own cities, and the impression is of a country that is much closer to Italy than you'd think and that seems to have very little that is African... We arrive at the Bardo Museum and, as soon as we get off the coach, we're pounced on by hawkers trying to push all sorts of things on us, from little necklaces to small bongos.....

and we run into a truly funny character: a fair-skinned Tunisian with two splendid blue eyes who, as soon as he realises we're Italian, starts humming songs from every part of Italy and in the correct local dialect!! We really enjoyed hearing him speak our language so correctly and know even popular sayings so well... the power of globalisation..... huh! The interior of the museum, which actually occupies the house of the old governor of Tunisia, is completely adorned on the walls and floors with many mosaics from Carthage... very beautiful.

Unfortunately the museum visit is rather quick for the reasons of lack of time already mentioned, so we come out and set off for Carthage: the site is quite far from the city and to reach it we drive through the newest, most “in” district of Tunis: here the houses, all very large and completely white, have very high prices, close to Italian ones, while the streets are new, wide and very clean. The Carthage site is rather disappointing: very little remains of the ancient city, since it was almost entirely destroyed by the Vandals, and the few stones left overlook the sea and stand right beside the house of the Tunisian president, completely surrounded by a high white wall, and towards which the guide advises us not to take photos unless we want our camera confiscated.

After leaving the site, the guide gives us time to do a bit of shopping: we approach a little souvenir shop, where we have to haggle quite a bit over the price of a hookah: in the end we get it for the price we wanted, but I'm practically forced to leave my little hat with the shopkeeper, who wants it for his son.... and in exchange for my hat he also gives me a desert rose..... I didn't much want to give up my little hat, which was my only shelter from the sun, but I thought of the Tunisian child's happiness and in the end I gave in. The last stop of our short stay in Tunisia is the little village of Sidi Bou Said: we'll have only half an hour before returning to the ship, so we'll have to hurry.

Sidi Bou Said is very pretty: it's not far from Carthage and stands on a hill near the sea, and it's famous for the characteristic blue colour of the doors and windows adorning its white houses. In fact the window grilles, street lamps, litter bins and benches are also painted blue, which makes this place truly one of a kind, even if it's too touristy and very crowded. The village's main street goes uphill and is full of souvenir shops, and we almost struggle to walk, given the crowds and the fact that the Tunisians never miss a chance to try to do business with tourists. Only in the little alleys just off the main street can you find a bit of peace and admire the white houses overlooking the green Tunisian sea. Our visit to Tunisia ends with this image; it's time to go home...