Tunis in 3 days

Bardo National Museum (the finest Roman mosaic collection in the world — housed in the 15th-century Husainid palace (the former palace of the Beys of Tunis — the rulers of the Hafsid and then the Ottoman vassal state of Tunisia)); the collection: the Roman mosaics (Tunisia has the largest and finest collection of Roman-era floor and wall mosaics in the world — superior even to Italy in the scale and artistic quality of the surviving mosaics; the reason: the dry North African climate preserves mosaics better than the European climate; the Roman mosaics of Tunisia depict: hunting scenes (the famous "Hunt of Meleager" mosaic from Carthage — 14 m wide and 3 m tall, one of the largest Roman mosaics ever found), marine mythology (the Neptunian procession mosaics from the Acholla villa), literary subjects (the "Virgil mosaic" from Sousse (Hadrumetum) — the portrait of the Roman poet Virgil with the Muses of Epic poetry and Tragedy, composing the Aeneid; this is the only known contemporary portrait of Virgil and the most important single artefact in the Bardo); the Ulysses mosaic from Dougga (Ulysses tied to the mast of his ship while the Sirens sing — the most famous representation of the Odyssey scene in Roman art); the Bardo (the palace architecture itself — the palace rooms from the 19th-century Bey period with the Moorish tilework, the painted plaster and the carved stucco ceilings provide a magnificent setting for the ancient mosaics).

Carthage (UNESCO World Heritage 1979 — 20 km northeast of Tunis; the site of one of the most historically significant cities in the ancient world): the history (the city of Carthage was founded by Phoenician colonists from Tyre (modern Lebanon) in approximately 814 BCE — the traditional date given by the Roman historian Timaeus (the archaeological evidence suggests a date slightly earlier); Carthage became the dominant commercial power of the western Mediterranean (the Carthaginian commercial empire extended from present-day Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia and the Atlantic coast of Portugal and Morocco)); the Punic Wars (Rome and Carthage fought 3 wars (the Punic Wars — from "Poeni", the Latin for Phoenician): the First Punic War (264-241 BCE — over Sicily; Rome won); the Second Punic War (218-201 BCE — Hannibal Barca's invasion of Italy across the Alps with 37 elephants (the most audacious strategic movement in ancient military history); Hannibal defeated Roman armies at Trebia (218), Lake Trasimene (217) and Cannae (216 — the most studied tactical defeat in military history: Hannibal's double envelopment of the Roman army)); the Third Punic War (149-146 BCE — the Roman total destruction of Carthage: "Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed), attributed to Cato the Elder; the city was burned for 17 days and the site ploughed with salt)); the Roman Carthage (Julius Caesar and Augustus established a new Roman colony on the Carthage site in 44 BCE — the Roman Carthage became the second-largest city in the western Roman Empire after Rome).

Sidi Bou Said (the hilltop village 20 km northeast of Tunis, above the Gulf of Tunis and the Carthage ruins; the most photographed village in Tunisia): the village (the strict Sidi Bou Said building regulations (enacted in 1915 by Baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger — the French-British musicologist and painter who settled in Sidi Bou Said and lobbied the French Protectorate administration to preserve the village appearance): all buildings must be white with cobalt-blue painted doors, window grilles and shutters; the regulation has preserved a uniquely coherent blue-and-white aesthetic for over 100 years); the history (Sidi Bou Said takes its name from the 13th-century Sufi saint Abu Said al-Baji who is buried in the village; the village was the residence of the Husainid beys of Tunis and became a fashionable artists' colony in the early 20th century (the painter Paul Klee and his colleague August Macke visited in April 1914 — the famous "Tunis journey" that transformed Klee's use of colour and abstraction; the visit is described in Klee's diaries: "Colour and I are one. I am a painter.")); the Dar Ennejma Ezzahra palace (Baron d'Erlanger's palace in Sidi Bou Said — now the Arab and Mediterranean Music Centre); the view (the panorama from the Sidi Bou Said clifftop over the Gulf of Tunis, the Cap Bon peninsula and the distant Mediterranean is the finest sea view accessible from Tunis).

Café des Nattes (the most famous café in Tunisia — at the top of the main staircase of Sidi Bou Said; the café has been operating since the early 20th century and was a gathering point for the artists who lived in Sidi Bou Said (André Gide, Paul Klee, August Macke and later the Tunisian artist Hedi Turki); the café name means "Café of the Woven Mats" (the nattes — the traditional woven straw mats on which the café customers sit in the traditional North African low-seating posture)); the thé à la menthe (mint tea) with the traditional pine nuts floating on the surface (the Tunisian variation on the North African mint tea tradition: the "thé citron" (tea with lemon) or the "thé à la menthe" (green tea with fresh spearmint) served with the "kaak warka" (the sesame-and-anise ring biscuits of the Tunisian tea tradition)); the view from the Café des Nattes terrace (the panorama over the terracotta rooftops of Sidi Bou Said and the blue Gulf of Tunis at sunset — the golden hour light on the white buildings and the blue paintwork is the defining postcard image of Tunisia); then the TGM train (Tunis-Goulette-Marsa commuter rail) from Sidi Bou Said station back to Tunis Ville station (25 min; DT 0.9 — the most scenic commuter train in North Africa, running along the Gulf of Tunis shore).

Dougga (Thugga — UNESCO World Heritage 1997; 100 km west of Tunis; the most completely preserved Roman town in North Africa and one of the finest Roman sites in the Mediterranean world): the site (the Roman town of Thugga (from the Berber name Tukka) was built on a hilltop site (alt. 600 m) overlooking the Khalled valley in the wheat-growing heartland of Roman North Africa (the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis provided 60% of the wheat consumed by the city of Rome)); the size (the site covers 65 hectares with 30+ intact or substantially intact Roman structures — far larger than any Roman site in France, Britain or Germany); the Capitol (the temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva (2nd century CE) — the finest intact Roman Capitoline temple outside Rome: the Corinthian columns of the pronaos still stand to their full height (the temple was the civic and religious centre of Roman Thugga)); the theatre (the theatre of Thugga (168-169 CE) — the best-preserved Roman theatre in North Africa: 3,500 seats, the scaenae frons (the stage backdrop) with three tiers of columns; still used for performances in the annual Dougga Festival); the Libyco-Punic mausoleum (the 3rd century BCE tower tomb of the Numidian King Ateban — the only intact Hellenistic-period Numidian royal monument in Tunisia); the Capitol baths (the largest Roman bath complex in the Dougga site — the cold room (frigidarium), the warm room (tepidarium) and the hot room (caldarium) with the heating system (hypocaust) visible below the floor).

Avenue Habib Bourguiba (the main boulevard of modern Tunis — the Tunisian Champs-Élysées; named after Habib Bourguiba (1903-2000) — the founding President of the Tunisian Republic (1957-1987), the architect of Tunisian independence from France (1956) and the most significant Tunisian political figure of the 20th century): the boulevard architecture (the 1.4 km palm-tree-lined avenue with the French Protectorate period colonial buildings (1881-1956): the Hôtel de Ville (town hall), the French Embassy building, the Hôtel du Lac (the modernist Le Corbusier-influenced concrete structure), the Cathedral of St. Vincent de Paul (the Catholic cathedral built 1882-1897 in the Romanesque-Byzantine style)); the Clock Tower (the Horloge Centrale — the clock tower at the east end of the avenue, the de facto city centre landmark); the medina gate (the Bab el Bhar — "Gate of the Sea" (also called the Porte de France) — the 1848 gate in the classical arch form that marks the transition from the French Protectorate colonial city to the Arab medina); the Jasmine Revolution memorial (the Avenue Habib Bourguiba was the site of the final demonstrations of January 14, 2011 that culminated in Ben Ali's flight from Tunisia — the avenue is the physical location of the Arab Spring's first successful uprising).

Tunis hammam experience (the hammam — the traditional Arab-Islamic public bathhouse; the hammam in the Tunis medina has been the social and hygienic institution of the city for over 1,000 years: the role (the hammam was essential to Islamic religious practice (ritual purity (taharah) is required for prayer; the hammam provides the full-body washing (ghusl) required after certain states of ritual impurity); the hammam was also the primary social space of the medina (the neighbourhood hammam was where neighbours met, gossip was exchanged and the pre-wedding rituals were performed; the hammam was gender-segregated with separate hours for men and women)); the procedure (the traditional hammam sequence: the changing room (the bayt el-barroud — the cool anteroom for undressing); the warm room (the bayt el-wastani — the intermediate room for acclimatising to the heat); the hot room (the bayt el-sokhna — the steam room with the marble slabs (the sadd) heated from below by the furnace); the treatment (the kessa — the exfoliation mitt scrub to remove the dead skin (the kessa exfoliation reveals the skin texture that is typically hidden under months of accumulated dead skin cells); the savon beldi (the black olive oil soap — made from unprocessed olive oil paste (the "black gold" of the Maghreb) that is applied after the kessa and left for 3-5 minutes before rinsing); the ghassoul (the Moroccan volcanic clay mask for the hair and face)).

Final Tunis evening (rooftop dinner with medina and Gulf of Tunis view): the rooftop restaurants of the Tunis medina (the medina has a growing number of converted fondouk (caravanserai) rooftop restaurants where the flat rooftops of the historic medina buildings provide views over the minarets, the terracotta roof tiles and the distant Gulf of Tunis (visible on clear evenings as a silver line 10 km to the east)); the final Tunisian menu: the merguez (the spiced lamb-and-beef sausage with the harissa and the herbs; the most characteristic Tunisian street meat, grilled on charcoal and served with the khobz (the round Tunisian flatbread)); the Tunisian salad mechouia (the grilled pepper, tomato and onion salad with the tuna and the hard-boiled egg — the most characteristic Tunisian salad); the kaftaji (the Tunis street food dish of deep-fried vegetables (courgette, pepper, tomato, egg, potato) mixed together in a pan and served in the khobz bread); the Tunisian almond and orange blossom pastries (the samsa (the triangular pastry filled with almond paste and honey), the makroud (the semolina pastry with the date paste filling (the Kairouan makroud) and the baklava in the Tunisian style with the pistachio and the orange blossom water)); the arak (the anise spirit — the Tunisian version of the Levantine anise liqueur, drunk diluted with water which turns the spirit white (the "ouzo effect" — the louche)).