I may have mentioned that we needed to leave Italy and the entire EU Schengen visa area for a few days. I made the mistake of booking our stays, voyage and flight home without counting the number of days we were in Italy. As it turned out we were in Italy 95 days, five days more than the time allowed without a visa. We tried to get visas, but the Italian government would not issue a visa because we were not staying at the same address the entire time. So, we needed a five-day side trip outside of the Schengen visa countries.
We considered Slovenia, but there was no easy, quick way to get there from Florence or Siena. We considered returning to the United Kingdom for a few days, but the other option was Morocco, a relatively quick and easy trip and a place we had never been.
Our daughter Elizabeth and Gary’s niece Michelle joined us in Italy and then flew to Morocco with us.
We arrived in Casablanca at night and went straight to our hotel to sleep. The next day we toured the Hassan II mosque, the third largest mosque in the world (only those in Mecca and Medina are larger) and ended up in a hookah bar for dinner because we had skipped lunch and were hungry earlier than the restaurants in Casablanca opened for dinner.
Early the next morning our driver picked us up for our three-day tour of Chefchaouen, Fes, Rabat and Meknes.
We enjoyed a beautiful and fascinating drive through the Moroccan countryside — palaces, mosques, elegant villas and squat cement block apartment buildings, tents, donkey carts, grazing sheep and horses. The landscape and vegetation looked much like that of Southern California. There were military or police checkpoints and lovely spots with trees and picnic tables. We stopped to eat at a hotel-camping resort with a restaurant and tree-shaded pool and dining area.
Our driver, Yassin, spoke English well and was knowledgeable about the history of his country. He has worked as a chef in The Philippines, UAE, and several other countries, but has been a driver on trips throughout Morocco, ranging from three days to two weeks for five years or so. He said he loves what he is doing because he meets people from all over the world and they are on holiday and always happy and smiling.
Chefchaouen is a hillside town in which buildings are painted blue and white. Our guide told us the blue was to keep the bugs away; perhaps it works because we were not bothered by mosquitos or bugs there, or anywhere in Morocco for that matter. Our guide also told us the town is where many people come to buy and smoke pot; we were not interested.
That night we wandered around town; stopped at a bar for a drink and ate at a restaurant recommended by the receptionist at our hotel. I ordered lamb tagine but was given beef instead. No matter, it was excellent.
Except for our misadventure in the hookah bar, the food was excellent everywhere we ate in Morocco. Every meal, breakfast included, was accompanied by olives. At one dinner we were served shredded zucchini cooked with honey. It was heavenly, and the cook was kind enough to give me the recipe. I am eager to get home and try it. At home, I make a dish my family loves called Moroccan Chicken. One time I ordered chicken tagine and was so pleased to discover it tastes very similar to the Moroccan chicken I make at home. We tried ordering couscous a few times but were always told that it was only made and served on Fridays, for the holy day. I did get it on the Friday we were in Morocco.
I read that 99 percent of the population practices Islam, but people seemed eager to assure us that people of other faiths were free to worship and welcomed. I have no means to verify that and do question how comfortable a one percent minority of the population (chiefly Christians and Jews) can be overall. There is no law in Morocco requiring women to cover their heads or faces and we saw women with no head coverings, women with only a shawl over their hair, and very occasionally women with a covering over the lower part of their faces.
After Chefchaouen we went on to Fes. We stayed in a riad in the old medina (marketplace). A riad is a traditional house or palace with an open courtyard; many of them have been transformed into guesthouses or hotels. Ours was lovely.
We had a tour of the old medina, a warren of narrow streets and alleys. We were told it is the oldest car-free place in the world and that there are more than 9000 streets and alleyways. We were happy we had a guide.
On the third day return to Casablanca we stopped in Rabat, the capital, and visited the Kasbah. We were told that the Kasbah was a fort originally built for protection. Approximately 150 families, including several European and American families live there currently.
Everywhere we went in Morocco the people were friendly and gracious. Even in many of the shops we were offered traditional Moroccan mint tea (which is delicious).
Our tour was whirlwind; we think we tried to do too much too fast. Elizabeth was sorry we missed Marrakech, and we would consider returning to do that and to camp in the desert. (Gary is not keen on that last idea; we may have to leave him at home.) We returned to Florence exhausted, although Elizabeth was up and out the next day for a quick visit to the Cinque Terre.
