Italy

Our arrival on November 22 at Milan was to be our third visit to northern Italy in two months. We wanted to visit again with our "Italian family" before heading east to Turkey and SE Asia.

After our first enjoyable evening catching up with Chiara and Massi in Busto Arsizio, we travelled southwest to Mortara. Lusia and Antonio live in a charming apartment, located in a former 19th century nunnery. Mortara is a town in the historical district of Lomellina, renowned as a rice growing centre. The right environmental conditions on the large flat plain have supported rice cropping for almost 300 years. I never expected to see rice paddies in Italy!

It was so appropriate and interesting to go for lunch at La Corte Ghiotta at Terno. Here friends of our hosts, have a family run agritourism business. Their main speciality is risotto, flavoured with percini, salmon, and even frog. Our delicious lunch was served in an attractive renovated barn, over many courses and hours, topped off with panna cotta, made from Anna's grandmothers recipe.

La Corte Ghiotta

The next day we set out to visit Vigevano, Antonio's hometown and another centre we would have never have discovered on our own. Such a nice treat to be shown local gems! Today Vigevano is known as Italy's "shoe capital" yet we were most suprized by the beautiful Piazza Ducale. This renaissance square dates back to the 1490's and is a fine example of a piazza, with almost perfect proportion 3:1, three sided, surrounded with arches and on the fourth is the Cathedral Church of Saint Ambrose. Bramante's design includes striking street tiles. It's a perfect place to sit, enjoy an apertif and the passers-by.

Piazza Ducale, Vigevano

Close by are the grand grounds of Castello Storzesco Castle and Bramante's watchtower. Featuring a unique and long covered road that was built high enough for horsemen to pass through and a stable for 1000 horses.

After a lovely evening meal featuring goose, another speciality of the area, we sadly had to say our goodbyes to Lusia and Antonio. We were cheered with the knowledge that we can look forward to their visit in June 2015. We all vowed to practice our respective new languages in the interim.

The next day we returned to Chiara and Massi's in Busto Arsizo and Giovanni joined us for another wonderful dinner of rabbit prepared by Chiara. Giovanni very kindly drove us to the airport the next morning for our flight to Turkey.   

" A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles" Tim Cahill

Essaouira Morroco

After spending 5 days in Marrakech and 3 days in the desert we decided to check out the seaside. We took a 3hr bus ride to Essaouira a port on the Atlantic. Essaouria was originally named Mogador a French/Portuguese fort built in the 16th century. We found an inexpensive hotel ($45/night including breakfast), just inside the walled medina and set out to explore this small city of 70,000 people.Essaoiura is situated on a long wide crescent beach with the walled medina fort and adjacent port at one end of the beach. 

The port has a shallow harbour so only busy with local fishing boats, seagulls filled the air and the smell of fish was ever present, buy your fish directly from the fishermen at the dock.

As you walk off the dock you enter the walled medina, no motor vehicles allowed, which allowed relaxing strolling. The narrow streets were filled with food stalls, shops selling leather goods, wooden crafts, carpets, art, antiques and numerous cafes, restaurants on the streets. Some restaurants had fantastic ocean views after climbing 4 flights narrow winding stairs.

We took long walks on the beach and watched football games on the sand, kite surfers in the air, and a few brave souls in the surf.

For us it was the perfect place to chill out for a week and recharge our batteries before heading off to our next adventure.

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net forever"  Jacques Coustesu

Berber desert trip

Having seen the desert in Egypt and a bit disappointed as there were no sand dunes, we heard there were sand dunes in Morrocco. We flew back to Italy, spent a day there and then hopped a flight to Marrakech Morroco. We met Zack a Berber spice vendor near our Riad (bed and breakfast) who gave us the low down on the large sand dunes near Merzouga, east into the Sahara near Algeria. We hired an English speaking driver "Hassan"and a  4 by 4 then started a journey of many contrasts.
We drove east from Marrekach and within an hour we were climbing the High Atlas mountains, on a steep, switchback road. What we didn't expect was snow on the roadside as we reached the top of the pass. 

High Atlas Mountains

Hassan

After driving back down to the desert we eventually reached Ait Ben Haddou  which has a thriving movie industry. Three big studios, sets and even a movie museum. We toured an ancient Berber village (also a UNESCO site) where "Gladiator" was filmed, along with many other big budget desert films including "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Mummy". They were shooting a sequel to"The Mummy" while we were there.  We were too white to get on as extra's.

Ancient Berber Village

We left Ait Ben Haddou and at Ouarzazate then started down "The Valley of a 1000 Kasbahs". Kasbahs were the original large fortified houses, now most are surrounded by villages, some are hotels and some are crumbling ruins.

Kasbah

After a good 3 hour  drive we arrived at our hotel tucked into a steep gorge. Off early the next morning, walked along Dades Gorge and watched rock climbers almost directly above us.

Dades Gorge

We drove a few more hours through a vast featureless desert and arrived at Merzouga. Our camels (not really camels but because they have only one hump they are dromedaris, camels have two humps and are only found in Asia). They were waiting across the road from the hotel where our driver stayed.
After 5 minutes we were plodding through the dunes, nothing in sight except for sand, this is what we came for. We stopped after an hour, sat on the dunes and watched the dunes glow in the setting sun. After another hour and in the complete darkness we arrived at the Berber encampment. There were about 15 other tourists there who had taken different routes to the camp, we only saw 2 other tourists on camels on the way in. We had supper and sat around a campfire and listened to our Berber guides singing and drumming. After enjoying the night sky we slept in our own Berber tent, and awoke before dawn, got on the camels and rode out into the dunes to witness the rising sun.Another hour on the camels and we were back with our driver.

That's us

Roughing it in our Berber tent

 From the start of our trip we insisted that our driver avoid the tourist traps, so we took a back road and travelled mostly through uninhabited desert, stopping to photograph wild camels, fossils and rest like the nomads under the umbrella tree. We arrived back in Marrkech late at night exhausted and sensory overloaded.

Marrakesh Morroco

Our next destination was exotic Morroco. We arrived in Marrakesh, an infamous city that holds it's mystique and allure for westerners. Surprisingly it had rained the night before, their first rain since April. An event since it only rains 20 days per year and our driver had to wear his jacket.
Soon we were inside the pink mud brick walls of the medina, the heart of Marrakesh. Traffic was an eye opener, very chaotic and mostly small motorbikes so thankfully our driver knew where he was going. Our riad (bed and breakfast) turned out to be located off a busy side street with more motorbikes, donkey carts, horse drawn carriages, bicycles, and pedestrians. 

A few steps down a narrow alley and we were inside our riad. It was like another world, so peaceful and quiet. The interior courtyard was full of towering plants and all rooms, opened into the atrium. The roof top terrace was a perfect spot to relax and take sunrise and sunset photos.

Alley to our riad

Riad Al Ksar

Roof top view of the Koutoubia Mosque

Armed with a map and directions, we set off to discover our neighbourhood and after several attempts we reached Place Jemaa-el-Fna, the huge historic and crowed square. We walked around, cautiously peeking at snake charmers, street musicians. We sampled fresh squeezed orange juice, dates and nuts from the myriad of stands. A truly unique experience too which we would return a number of times, even at night and during a full moon. Guide books suggested we try grilled food at one of the  numerous stalls in the square. Which we did once and that was enough. 

Place Jemma-el-Fna

One sunny, warm morning we toured the beautiful Jardin Majorelle. It's a perfect oasis in a crowded city and a photographers haven, The garden was originally designed as an artist's landscape garden. Primary vibrant colours adorn pots, walls and the artist's house. We particularly enjoyed the cacti collection.

Marrakech is a sensory travel delight from subtle spices in cooking (tangines), to pottery, to stalls packed with scarves, shoes, lights and even the call to prayers. There are so many colours, patterns and people to observe, a virtual feast for your eyes. It can also be a sensory overload too, so after five days even mint tea ceases to calm, so we welcomed an excursion to see more of Morroco.

After a three day trip to the sand dunes at Mertzouta and a week in Essouria on the Alantic coast, we returned to Marrekech to make our return trip to Italy. The city was still hectic and busy but we were experienced now, bargaining with the taxi drivers for the best "democratic" fare. Walking the medina square with thousands of tourists and locals, buying our supplies at the many stalls and getting to our riad. It was fun to watch the newbie tourists, as we were a week before, that "omg" look in their eyes as they tried to take it all in.