TL;DR – I took a walk. Then we drove out to a Roman ruin, saw some stuff along the way, drove through a small city and had lunch. Returned to hotel. Ordered room service for dinner and took another walk.

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Unfortunately, not Rome, Italy. Rather, we drove out to visit Volubilis, the ruins of an ancient Roman city about 85 km from Fes near the city of Miknes. But before breakfast, I went out for a walk to see the early morning Medina activity near our hotel, the Riad Fes.

It might seem mundane to some, but one of the things I enjoy about travel is walking about in cities to see what the people there look like, what they do, and how the real city – not the tourist sites – look. What I saw this morning was moms taking their kids to school, (mostly) men sitting at cafes. The main streets, which allow cars, near the Medina were uncrowded.

The drive out started on a highway, but soon devolved to a windy mountain road with some rough pavement and occasional potholes.

Along the way, we passed endless olive orchards and bare fields which have been harvested and are waiting for the spring. We also made the obligatory stop to look at a pretty view; there was stuff to buy there. I’m not sure this one was sponsored.

We’ve seen many Roman ruins in our travels; they extend (as far as where we have been) from Great Britain to Israel. I’d have to say that Volubilis is one of the finest and most extensive we’ve seen. The exception might be the Forum and Coliseum in Rome; the former is actually almost too big, complex and crowded to appreciate, while the latter is truly awesome.

Just as during our Fes Medina walking tour, our guide Kamal outsourced this part of the trip to a sub, whose name I can not recall. But he was very knowledgeable, very nice, spoke excellent English and was very considerate of us. He definitely made a potentially boring history and archeology lesson more enjoyable than it would have otherwise been.

One of the things he explained was about the floor mosaic in the picture above. This entire city was buried for hundreds of years, and many of the details were well preserved, like the floor mosaic from some rich guy’s house. You’ll notice that a section in the upper right is missing. You’ll also notice a pair of legs coming out of the missing section. Archeologist believe that the missing part showed people engaged in activity that was deemed inappropriate by the Christians who took over the city in the third or fourth century, so they censured it.

The last picture from today shows some parts of a mansion that was located near the center of the city. We know the owner was both rich and important (clockwise from top): note the pool with individual seating areas, the view from the entry patio framing the basilica, and the view from an inner courtyard with pool also framing the basilica.