Mediterranean Interlude Naples – Valletta

Jewel of Italy’s Campania Region, Naples is home to some magnificent palaces, sumptuous Baroque churches and countless romantic squores. Classed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995, the old district’s rich artistic and cultural history is without equal. Nearby, the ruins of Pompeii provide a grandiose and moving vision of what was once a great city at the height of the Roman Empire. Having been asleep under a blanket of ash for so long, objects, houses and beautiful frescoes have been preserved almost intact. Pompeii offers a valuable insight into the past and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Palermo is the capital of the Italian island of Sicily. The 12th-century Palermo Cathedral houses royal tombs, while the huge neoclassical Teatro Massimo is known for opera performances. Also in the center are the Palazzo dei Normanni, a royal palace started in the 9th century, and the Cappella Palatina, with Byzantine mosaics. Busy markets include the central Ballarò street market and the Vucciria,

Trapani is a city in western Sicily with a crescent-shaped coastline. At the western tip, offering views as far as the Aegadian Islands, is the 17th-century Torre di Ligny watchtower. It houses the Museo di Preistoria e del Mare, with archeological artifacts. North of the harbor, the Chiesa del Purgatorio church holds wooden sculptures that are paraded around the city during Easter’s Processione dei Misteri.

Tunis is the sprawling capital of Tunisia, a country in North Africa. It sits along Lake Tunis, just inland from the Mediterranean Sea’s Gulf of Tunis. It’s home to a centuries-old medina and the Bardo, an archaeology museum where celebrated Roman mosaics are displayed in a 15th-century palace complex. The parklike ruins of ancient Carthage sit in the city’s northern suburbs.

Porto Empedocle is a town and comune in Italy on the coast of the Strait of Sicily, administratively part of the province of Agrigento. It is the namesake of Empedocles, a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of the city of Akragas, in his day a Greek colony in Sicily.