I've visited this country only once, during the summer 2012. My interest was first of all related to the Islamic past, including Ibn Khaldun, the Qarawiyyin, etc. In the second place, I was interested in the Tunisian francophone literature, that I considered nonetheless as lesser, if compared to the Moroccan or Algerian. This is why my concern in Tunisia became focused on just one figure: Abdelwahab Meddeb as a writer and as an intellectual.
During my trip, I visited the obvious places such as Tunis, with its colonial, modernist avenue Ibn Khaldun, and the medinah containing the mosque of al-Zaytuna, as well as Kairouan. As I said, the Islamic monuments were at the center of my interest. Nonetheless, at that time, a certain tension was in the air for anything that concerned religion. In many places I didn't dare more than a glimpse, hardly daring to breath and certainly not thinking about taking pictures. On the other hand, I still had several very friendly encounters with the local religious-intellectual class, as well as with the local people, greatly surprised to see me reading in the bilingual edition of the epistle on Mālikī rite by Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani.
I was more at ease, but at the same time much more isolated from local life, in all places related to the Antiquity and I visited all the obvious attractions such as Carthage, the amphitheater of al-Jam, etc. But that wasn't the main aim of my trip.
Shortly speaking, Tunisia is a country that remains on my agenda for a deeper approach in quieter times.