Today we returned from our long trip to Tunisia and western Sicily: four days in Tunisia, two in Sicily. We visited eleven sites, including Bulla Regia, Chemtou, Carthage and Dougga in North Africa, and Motya, Segesta, Solunto and Himera in Sicily, with the focus on the complexity of these settlements — the processes of Romanization, and the often peaceful, if complex, coexistence of Greeks, Sicels, Romans and Phoenicians.
First North Africa: a subterranean courtyard in Bulla Regia, the Numidian altar of Baal at Chemtou, the collapsed bridge of Trajan at Chemtou, the temple of Jove, Juno and Minerva at Dougga and the Carthaginian amphitheater:
Sicily: the boat to Motya, the metopes of Selinunte in the Palermo museum, the view from a fancy house in Solunto and the last of our (Sicilian) Doric temples at Himera:
The following Friday, we stayed close to home with a walking tour of the Roman remains of Catania — mainly baths:
