The Bardo National Museum, La Goulette and Tunisian Food

While Carthage gives you the coastal setting of Roman Africa in situ, the artistic treasures excavated from Tunisia's ancient villas, baths and amphitheatres live four kilometres west of central Tunis inside the Bardo National Museum (Musée National du Bardo), easily paired with a long seafood lunch by the harbour canal in La Goulette.

The Bardo National Museum: Roman mosaics in a Beylical palace

Reached directly on Metro Leger Line 4 (Le Bardo stop), the museum occupies a 19th-century summer palace of the Husainid Beys beside the Tunisian Parliament, expanded with a contemporary wing. The building is a double masterpiece: you look down at 2nd- and 3rd-century AD Roman mosaic carpets while looking up at 19th-century gilded Moorish stucco cupolas, painted wood ceilings and Qallaline wall tiles. Give yourself at least two hours for these highlights:

• The Virgil Mosaic and Ulysses and the Sirens (Dougga Room): a famous 3rd-century AD portrait from Hadrumetum (Sousse) showing the Roman poet Virgil seated between two muses holding a scroll of the Aeneid, displayed near the vivid marine mosaic of Ulysses tied to the mast of his ship as he sails past winged Sirens from Dougga.
• The Triumph of Neptune and the Great Hunt mosaics: vast multi-panel floor pavements from Sousse, El Jem, Utica and Bulla Regia depicting sea gods, four-horse chariots, vineyard harvests, gladiators and wild African beasts.
• The Mahdia Shipwreck, Carthage statues and Islamic Blue Quran leaves: Hellenistic bronze sculptures recovered from a 1st-century BC shipwreck off Mahdia, marble gods from Carthage, and rare 10th-century gold-lettered parchment folios from Kairouan.

La Goulette fish restaurants and essential Tunisian dishes

Tunisian cuisine stands apart from Moroccan and Algerian cooking through its generous use of sun-dried tomato paste, harissa, capers, tuna, olive oil and fresh Mediterranean seafood. Look for four classics across the capital:

• Grilled fish and Brik à l'oeuf in La Goulette (Halq al-Wadi): ride the TGM across Lake Tunis to the port of La Goulette, choose whole red mullet (rouget) or gilt-head bream (daurade) from the ice counter, and start with a crisp half-moon of malsouka pastry folded around a runny whole egg, parsley, capers and tuna (brik), eaten with a squeeze of lemon.
• Lablabi: a morning breakfast soup of tender chickpeas ladled over torn crusty bread, dressed to order with cumin, garlic, olive oil, harissa, capers, flaked tuna and a soft-poached egg.
• Couscous au Poisson and Ojja: fine semolina steamed over a saffron-and-harissa fish broth, or a sizzling pan of spicy tomatoes, peppers, merguez sausages and poached eggs (ojja).
• Bambalouni and Fricassé: puffy golden rings of fried dough rolled in sugar in Sidi Bou Said, and savoury fried rolls stuffed with tuna, potato, olive and harissa around the Medina gates.