You could stay all day on the terrace on the first floor of the historic
Argana
café-restaurant (it was the site of a terrorist attack on 18 April 2011 that killed 17 people, including three Italians) and enjoy the immense emotion of a magical place, as ancestral as the square
Jemaa El Fnaa
because you would see different things over the course of the hours.
It is a place that hypnotizes this square, among the 10 largest in the world, a UNESCO heritage site.
It is certainly a tourist resort known all over the world but the swarm of people is not only of travelers looking for exotic places.
Snake
charmers
play a flute incessantly and make a tribal sound.
There are
trained monkeys,
the drummers dressed in red and an immense expanse of sellers of every possible merchandise, very often handcrafted.
There are those who pass the sugar cane through a press and sell the juice, those who squeeze the pomegranate, those who have a cart of prickly pears to peel at the moment, there are the terracotta artifacts with tagine pots and enamelled vases and decorated, the sellers of argan oil (the purest ones must be purchased certified by women's cooperatives), the sellers of multi-colored carpets and slippers, the traditional shoe now fashionable in Europe too, made here in a thousand colors and decorations.
Veiled women await you for henna tattoos.
The smells mix, ranging from burnt incense to the mix of 35 spices typical of Moroccan meat dishes, there are
burning embers where sheep and mutton heads
and kebabs are roasted, especially in the evening when the square becomes a gigantic local
street food
festival with long tables where you can sit with family or next to strangers and let the strong smells of roast meat and spices, fish to fry and skewers to cook.
Alcohol banned (except in some licensed restaurants).
The show from the morning where you go shopping has changed again and the square is an expanse of lights in brass containers (for sale of course and cheap) for lanterns for evenings from the Arabian Nights, remain the snake charmers and next to young brave people who perform feats such as walking on fire or broken glass.
From the Argana, enjoying magnificent almond pastries and classic tagines, the scene is impressive, stunning for the energy it emanates.
ANSA. it
Moroccan cuisine, step by step tagines - Lifestyle
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From morning until late evening you enter the
Medina
, an infinite maze in which it is practically impossible to find your way around despite the efforts to keep to fixed points such as the spice square (
Places des Espices
) or the bell tower from which the muezzin's prayer bounces.
But
the beauty is just getting lost in the souk,
savor the spectacle of the neat stacks of seasoned olives and pyramids of spices.
It is not uncommon for the seller to offer fresh mint tea, the most traditional drink of Morocco (now updated to western uses with the sans sucre variant, without sugar).
The souq is touristic, there is little to say, visitors stroll through it en masse but when you see a cart go by in the crowd with an elderly man dragging hides to be tanned, you understand that these shops are alive, beyond tourism.
Shopping sirens are irresistible:
from the 'true fakes' of sports shoes, clothing and bags with Dior on the head, to beautiful kaftans of all shapes.
Cabinetry works with scented cedar boxes, leather with handcrafted bags, poofs and pointed shoes and then again the traditional glass glasses, earrings, necklaces and rings among which to rediscover the most authentic style of traditional women's jewels berber.
And then the scents of spices and fragrances that creep into the nostrils.
The tourist's question 'how much does it cost'?
it is the sign of little knowledge of the way of life here
, we must rather say: 'if I give you x dirham will you sell it to me?'' And then negotiate until death, the custom is that and not only for tourists.
Business around here?
Many, however expensive it may seem an object torn into hundreds of dirhams, we know that in Italy in euros, especially if of excellent workmanship as you can find with a little eye, we would pay at least double if not triple.
This goes for everything, including argan oil, spices, and every other type of item.
Ideal in the Medina is to
waste time, not to rush
or maybe come back several times, you will discover new alleys and other faces.
A leap into the oven where the loaves of bread are baking gives the archaic dimension of all this: it is a wood-burning oven, nothing electric, much less kneaded.
Always kindly asking for permission to take photos is a good rule
: the answer is not obvious, nor is it always yes, especially if you want to photograph humble people intent on working.
Go there and come back
to sharpen your eyes, understand the quality, appreciate what in almost all of the times is handcrafted, from the stitching onwards.
In the Medina there are also European-style shops, this can be understood immediately from the more reserved, well-kept shop, they are addresses that you need to know or ask for, very often run by French people.
The prices are definitely higher than the rest of the souq and the items taste closer to ours.
In the heart of the Medina, the café-restaurant des Espices
deserves a food stop, with an exciting view
, a classic address on the square teeming with merchandise.
You can sit down just for a mint tea or a fabulous chicken with lemon and green olives, a super-classic of the cuisine of these parts and look down, as if we were on a theater stage.
Trying to go out but always remaining in the Medina you can visit
the Madrassa
of Ben Youssef
, the Koranic school
, while in the old part you can enter the narrow alleys full of cats and artisans, places of simple and poor life, where hurried tourists often don't arrive at all.
An address to recommend in these parts is
Herbalisterie Des Gazelles
in Rue Tihzrit, where Hicham, a kind and knowledgeable gentleman, explains the characteristics of the typical products in their common use, at prices lower than the more touristy shops in the souk, weighing them from gigantic glass jars.
Among the suggestions, in addition to multifunctional solid soaps scented with jasmine, amber, musk, sandalwood, there is
prickly pear seed oil,
an antioxidant and therefore anti-aging agent, very rich in vitamins C and A and fashion.
MARRAKECH photo by Alessandra Magliaro - the jars of spices and cosmetics at the Herboristerie des Gazelles
Returning to Jamaa el Fnaa, take rue Riad Zitoun el Jedid or the parallel el Kedim to go to
Mellah,
the ancient Ebaic quarter, here you will find excellently made silver jewellery, you have to be ready to negotiate here too but it's worth it.
Another local advice is to go to these parts to buy spices and buy them in roots, not pulverized already, bring them back whole from the trip, clean them carefully and chop them in the mixer: turmeric roots, ginger, cinnamon peel and so on.
Near Mellah is the Bahia palace, with its gardens and yellow-green tiles and not far away, immediately behind the el Badi palace with the Kasbah mosque, the Tombs of the Saadites (with Carrara marble and
pure gold stucco
) You have to get used as slowly as possible to that swarming of people and life, of women and old people who ask for alms, of small vendors who improvise banquets with home-baked sweets on top.
It is a crossing full of emotions.
Visiting Marrakech also means going to Yves' house,
the Saint Laurent museum and the
Majorelle
garden
, one of the marvels of the city (if you don't pay attention to the mafia of taxi drivers who park outside. In this regard, a piece of advice that applies to the rest of the city and your stay: never go up without first negotiating the price of the route, you will require bills from robbery. Nobody except rare cases of honest drivers turn on the meter: the reason is simple: the tourist would discover that the ride would actually cost the equivalent of 1-2-3-euro and not the 10, 20 that he will pay) .
The Majorelle garden is a place of peace, a luxuriant garden of palms, gigantic bamboos and cacti, banana trees so well kept that you think it needs to be dusted, which actually happens because every day the very long leaves of the succulent plants are cleaned by the workers.
It is one of the most instagrammable places with those buildings in bright yellow and indigo blue, indeed
majorelle blue
as that very intense, dense blue conceived by the French painter and well-known orientalist Jacques Majorelle who settled here in the 1920s is called in the art world. see, for example, the authentic traditional objects of Berber women, the same ones that can be bought in the souk when reproduced.
The adjacent Yves Saint Laurent museum (with the garden it reaches 600,000 visitors a year), inaugurated about ten years ago, has temporary exhibitions and a permanent collection that tell the story of the designer through his iconic clothes but also how much debt there is as a source of inspiration from Morocco for the choice of colors and shapes of this immortal designer.
Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergè discovered the garden in the mid-1960s (in a state of neglect after Majorelle's death in 1962) during their first stay in Marrakech and fell in love with it.
In 1980 they bought the garden and decided to live in the artist's house, Villa Oasis (today closed to the public).
Marrakech now also has a new area to visit, it is called M and also has
Cristiano Ronaldo among its investors.
Extra-luxury homes, boutiques and restaurants, intended for the local wealthy and for those, especially Americans, who come to spend the winter in this place where summer is almost perennial.
Also in the area is the Palais de Congres, the main venue of the Marrakech festival which returned in 2022 after the years of the pandemic, attracting over 150,000 spectators, some of whom enjoyed films and guests from the gigantic screen installed on the Jemaa el Fnaa square.
Even the nearby
Menara
district has high-quality buildings, good restaurants and many second homes.
You say Marrakech is also think of luxury hotels famous all over the world, such as the Royal Mansour and
the Mamounia
, where Moroccans in traditional white dress open the doors.
MARRAKECH photo by Alessandra Magliaro - the entrance to the Mamounia hotel
Inside there are very fragrant halls, fountains, sitting rooms, all in an Arab style and gardens as large as a park.
Having afternoon tea in there is an experience,
the hammam is famous
.
You can also have this experience in many hammams in the Medina but at Mamounia it is special, you are welcomed, looked after, washed in a dreamlike setting.
It is an ancient practice, you relax, you sweat in the Turkish bath, then you are massaged with Moroccan black soap based on olive oil with its incredible exfoliating power of dead cells, so thoroughly clean, lying on the bed, you are massaged with a glove to complete the ritual.
Then after the shower you are sprinkled with mud all over your body and then washed again.
The ritual action can end with a massage with argan oil, from the scalp to the feet.
Immediate benefits: relaxation, smooth skin and shiny hair.
Another local tip: black soap can be added with something else, for example turmeric seeds,
MARRAKECH photo by Alessandra Magliaro - Maria, the cook of Dar Darma Riad, teacher of healty Moroccan cuisine
The medina and all of Marrakech is full of Riads, places to discover, addresses hidden by sometimes anonymous doors, but once opened there is a beautiful and relaxing world that appears as if by magic.
Dar Darma is one of these, it was an ancient Moroccan family home from the 18th century and is now a hotel full of suggestions, the clientele is international, the property is Italian, the welcome is Moroccan.
The spaces are simple, minimalist and well cared for, nothing is out of place in these design rooms that seem to come from Domus, four suites, two apartments and common halls, you can relax on the panoramic terrace lying on the sun loungers, listen to the sounds coming from medina, the incessant chirping and the muezzin who marked the time for prayer.
Here you can have a special encounter: Maria,
the cook willing to guide you through the secrets of cooking which, if with well-dosed spices, can be not only healty but also digestible and easy to replicate.
People come to Dar Darma not only to stay but as external guests to have an authentic Moroccan breakfast (abundant like a real meal) served on the roofs or lunch or dinner (by booking), certain of the freshness and quality of the product cooked at the moment and served with great care on antique tables.
