We got a late start once again, but that’s ok, as this is our “relaxation” spot where we are spending 4 days. Today we visited the Roman Theater, which was discovered in 1980. It was under the site of an old fort which was being excavated to determine the limits of medieval fortifications. This theater was one of the largest ever built by the Roman empire (seating for 20,000) and dates back to the 1st century B.C.
We saw this gift shop while walking around, and they have these KKK figurines from various ethnic groups. I leave it to you to decide who is represented by the red and the purple.
Then we hit the Yacimiento Arqueologico Fenicio Gadir Museum, which is #1 on Trip Advisor for Cadiz. This is the site of an acient village built by the Phoencians in the 9th century B.C. Back then part of Cadiz was an island with a canal running down the middle, and the Phoencians built their city on the highest spot of the island. The theater at this site was being demolished and a new theater was being built, and when they excavated for the foundation they discovered the remains of this portion of the village. They have since excavated and preserved 8 house foundations and 2 streets that ran between them. The new theater is built above this site.
The tour started out with a really cheesy video that can only be described as “CSI Cadiz”. It was really bad! Then the screen raised and the entire underground area was lit up. Very cool!
This is a photo of the foundation of a Phoenician oven (known as a Tannur) in one of the houses.
The Romans are represented here as well, as they built right on top of the Phoenician ruins. Here is a Roman salting vat still filled with limpet shells (like a barnacle but more closely related to sea snails).
These are more Roman salting vats, where they would fill the vat with fish and salt and made a wonderful “fish sauce” that was highly praised by the Romans back in Romeland.
Here are the remains of a cat in the middle of a Phoencian street. The CSI Cadiz team did not identify the cause of death on this one.
This skeleton was found during the excavation. This guy is featured in the cheesy video with the two terrible Spanish actors they cast to be eternally embarrased for their role in that 12 minute film. The CSI team determined that this guy died during a fire at the beginning of the 6th century B.C. They did DNA testing and found that his father was Phoenician and his mother was European. They even determined he broke his leg trying to escape the fire. I’m guessing there is film somewhere they aren’t showing us.
We then headed to lunch at our favorite Cadiz restaurant, Confusione Pizza. Today, we told Julia, our new favorite waitress, to just have the Chef cook us whatever he wanted. The first course was this Mozarella cheese sack with tomatoes. Yum!
Then we had a Faux Cappucino that looked like a real Cappucino but it was a mixture of bean puree, foie gras, and parmesan foam. Then a slice of fish (salmonetta which is actually Red Mullet) on top of beat puree on top of ink squid biscotti. Didn’t get a photo of either of these two…too busy eating. Finally got around to taking a photo of the Waygu beef on top of a mushroom even I liked…and this killer cheesy sauce!
Then the final course was this Tiramisu dish, and I have never seen or tasted anything like it. It was one of the best desserts we have ever had. Looks like brains, but man was it good!
This was likely the second best meal we have ever had (right after Ocean, reviewed in the Algrave previously). I will be following this Chef’s path….he is something else! Unfortunately they are closed tomorrow or we’d be back for a third meal. BTW, Kim has a crush on the Chef….I can’t say I blame her!
