First steps in Morocco - Marrakech and surroundings

Marrakech

We land in Marrakech on June 3 at 10:30 Italian time, late; very late compared to our travel schedule, since we expected, as per the airline's voucher, and as per the times on all the websites consulted, a 1-hour time difference. We realize instead that the time difference is 2 hours, and soon we'll have the explanation for the mystery. We understand that in Morocco everything moves very slowly, and organization isn't their best quality: at the airport we lose over 1 hour at the checks (no visa is needed for tourism, but the usual immigration form to fill out and hand in). Waiting for us at the exit is our driver; to make the trip easier for my wife, I thought it best to avoid haggling with taxi drivers, paying 18 euros for our need for peace of mind; along the way we're told that during Ramadan the time difference is 2 hours compared to Italy (we set our clocks back).

The driver parks the car just outside the Medina, about 200 meters from the Riad Le Secrete du Zoraida, where we'll spend our entire stay (the choice not to sleep in other cities is also dictated by the need for a moderately relaxing trip, without having to unpack and change accommodations every day); we're led through alleys and narrow alleys to the door of the riad. Here they're waiting for us with a smile, a glass of mint tea, an abundant breakfast, and a map of the city for explanations. We already feel at home, but the room isn't ready yet; we therefore decide to immediately visit the 2 palaces south of the Medina, beyond the Saadian tombs.

We already know that on the street we'll be watched closely by merchants and tour guides, so we decide to refuse in advance the requests for help offered to us (always obviously for a fee, even just to point out a route) and to "get lost" through the alleys of Marrakech, using exclusively our paper guides. First stop is the Bahia Palace (admission 1 euro) …. The visit doesn't excite us, and after a few minutes we decide to move toward the El Badii Palace (also here admission is cheap; visit lasting over 1 hour), confident of finding more reasons for interest.

Even with a satellite navigator in hand, we manage to take a wrong turn a couple of times; we find plenty of attractions, starting from the basements of the palace where you find everything from old maps to representative images of the palace before some of its parts collapsed; surely the marble that enriched the rooms must have made the complex before us even more majestic, with the pool basins standing out in the center. Finally, we end the morning's visits at the Saadian Tombs; before reaching them, after taking wrong turns several times, we cross a shop from side to side whose owner opens the back gate for us to let us pass more easily. Despite these attractions being just a few steps from one another, there's no map, nor navigator, that can keep you from getting lost….

The Saadian Tombs also leave us pleasantly surprised; the room with the royal tombs can't be walked on, but from the outside you can sense its magnificence; the complex is admirable; the visit lasts just a few minutes, the site is small, just a courtyard adorned with plants and trees, and side rooms of which only the one described is worthy of note. After about 2 hours visiting the Palaces and the Saadian tombs, we return to the riad; the room is ready, and we take the opportunity for a shower and some relaxation before heading to the center of the Medina and its souk.

The sun is beating down, and distracted for a moment as we move from the south to the center of the Medina, we end up taking the wrong intersection and entering directly into the souk; we therefore change plans and head toward the Medersa Youssef before visiting Piazza El Fnaa; the Madersa is a center of Quranic worship, and its central courtyard is perhaps the most photographed element among the buildings of Marrakech. It's already 17:00, and finding the way to Piazza El Fnaa is possible only with the help of a GPS; among the souk purchases we remember argan oil, cheap compared both to the production centers and to the markets of other cities, though not too convenient compared to Italian prices.

Once we reach the square, honestly we're not as thrilled as we would have expected given the reviews and comments on the internet; we have dinner on one side of the square with a view of the Koutoubia Mosque, watching the Champions League final Juventus Real. The return to the hotel is simple; our reference point is the cafè de france, from which a long little street starts that will lead us to a parking lot, a few steps from our riad.

Essaouira

June 4. Wake up at dawn. At 8:00 departure is scheduled from Piazza El Fnaa, corner cafè de france, heading to Essaouira; transfer booked from Italy with GetYourGuide at 25 euros per person, transport only, full day. The tour starts late due to misunderstandings between the driver and the other Italian passengers who were waiting for the pick-up directly inside the Medina. It takes us about 3 hours by car to reach Essaouira; along the way only 2 stops, the first to capture goats perched atop an argan tree, the second for a visit to an argan processing factory. Essaouira is spectacular, clean, sunny, colorful. We buy local craft products; I can't resist buying a chessboard also made with lemon wood. The city is surrounded by high walls, the souk is much less touristy than that of Marrakech; the position on the ocean and the strong breeze allow us a pleasant tour.

We have dinner at the port with freshly caught fish; alas, we're disappointed by the cooking, the service, and the presence of cats under the tables, and we don't leave a tip for the insistent waiters. Part of the same tour group are 2 Italians with whom we spend the whole day, and we decide to spend the next day together as well, crossing the Atlas in search of the most beautiful Kasbahs in Morocco.

Kasbah and ksar

June 5. The previous evening we confirmed through our Riad a private transfer from Marrakech to Ouarzazate with stops in particular at Telouet and Ait Ben Haddou; although the cost is higher than the tours offered by city agencies, the latter don't reassure us that they'll follow the Telouet road due to it being impassable from the bad weather of the previous days; moreover, we've already verified with the Essaouira experience that the group tour also entails considerable loss of time due to the different needs of travelers (a bus with 50 tourists will have dedicated over 1 hour to the stop at the argan factory...) Having made friends the previous day with 2 other Italians, we share our private tour with them, and at 8:00 we're already outside Marrakech.

After brief photo stops to capture the landscape, after passing the summit of Tizi'n Tichka, at 11:00 we reach the splendid and isolated Kasbah of Telouet; the surrounding landscape is bleak, the interiors bare, yet the central body of the structure is still well kept and visitable, and numerous photos taken testify to its grandeur. Another hour of very rough road separates us from Ait Ben Haddou; we take it easy and make numerous photo stops among the Atlas mountains to capture the Kasbahs still present in the valleys. Ait Ben Haddou, the set of many film epics, is a very well-preserved ksar, with defensive walls, typical pre-Saharan constructions. It can be visited hurriedly in an hour, but given the high temperatures I don't recommend climbing to the top of the mountain from which the entire ksar can be seen; there are already plenty of photo opportunities even at lower altitude.

A Unesco Heritage site, it's one of the most spectacular sites in Morocco. A local fabric merchant manages to involve the women of the group in a long negotiation for the purchase of keffiyehs; the amusing little scene ends with a dressing demonstration and the obligatory photo. We set off again for Ouarzazate; we prefer not to enter the film Studios, and to head straight to the Kasbah of Taouirt, very well preserved and impressive on the outside, but bare and uninteresting on the inside. Numerous improvised guides try to offer themselves for the tour of the Kasbah and the nearby town center, which instead we explore on foot by ourselves without deriving any particular interest from it. From Ouarzazate to Marrakech we'll spend 4 hours by car, and we'll make only one technical stop.

We arrive in Marrakech at the exact moment when the Ramadan ban on eating ends; our driver stops the vehicle and gets out to buy food which he then consumes in the back of the van; the streets fill up with people. Satisfied with the tour, I can suggest to everyone the stop at Telouet, for me much more significant than Taouirt, also for the context of the nearby valleys; surely local tour operators appreciate this option less due to the considerable distances and the duration of the various tours; cost for us 150 euros, much more than local offers, but money well spent. Back in Marrakech we say goodbye to our pleasant travel companions, with whom we'll stay in touch in Italy, and we close our experience in the city with a couple's hammam and a dinner in the Riad based on couscous.

Casablanca

June 6. Just to visit the Mosque of Casablanca we pay dearly for the transfer from Marrakech, and the subsequent ride to the airport (140 euros with a private driver). Less than 3 hours of travel, departure at 8:00 from Marrakech, at 11:00 we're at the entrance of the Mosque of Casablanca for a guided tour in Italian. In an hour we learn how sophisticated the architectural work we're visiting is, recently built, with a retractable roof, titanium doors with vertical opening; present on the lower floor are hammams for men and women, a purification room, which won't be found in any other mosque. The structure faces directly onto the ocean, and the external views are the most photographed in Casablanca. We take a few steps near the souk, then head to the airport, from which at 17:00 the flight to Catania departs.