Where do you intend to spend your honeymoon? This is a question that I like to ask my couples. As he was joking, my Dad once told me that the honeymoon is the best part in getting married. Although I cannot agree with him, I believe that traveling together as a couple is a beautiful experience. In March 2022, I had the chance to turn the page of Covid-19 and have my first leisure trip abroad since some time. It was not a couple trip, though, because I had decided to travel alone, in order to best experience this aesthetical breakaway – and also because I believe that marriage should not prevent women from becoming strong, independent persons – and traveling alone is a good way to experience autonomous, solitary and delightful moments.

So I am not giving you tips for your honeymoon, here, but rather ideas about travelling. You may consider it an interlude in my many articles about wedding – and also an opportunity to see how fine art photographic style suits travel pictures.

For this trip I had settled my destination to Morocco. Not too complex a trip for this first discovery of the country at an adult age: first Marrakech, then a 3-day tour to the desert, and back to Marrakech again. I had hesitated about going to see other cities – there seems to be so many breathtaking places in Morocco! –, but as time goes by I am more and more convinced that in matter of places in time of vacation, “less is more” – just as for wedding styling. And I found out I was quite right: there were already so many spots to see in just one city in the week I had allotted to it!

I think that one of the things I liked the most in Moroccan architecture is the symmetry of Islamic art and the colorfulness of the thousands pieces of terracotta mosaics (“zellige”). One place that impressed me is the Bahia Palace (“The Palace of the Beauty”) that was built in the 19^th century. I particularly enjoyed its intensely hued wooden ceilings and its gardens that smelled of orange blossom.

Marrakech deserves to be allotted at least four days, because they are so many other places aside from the Bahia Palace that are worth visiting. The El Badi Palace, the Museum of Marrakech, the Museum of Photography, the tombs of Saadian kings, and the Dar Si Said, stand among these unique places that make the city so captivating.

But Morocco is a country of diverse wonders, and it would have been a pity not to leave Marrakech for a few days and see horizons beyond. I took a little tour to the East of the Atlas Mountains. On my way East, I visited Aït Ben Haddou, a traditional Amazigh (“Berber”) village that served as a film set for many movies and TV shows such as Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, and Game of Thrones.

Further East, I went to erg Chebbi, that is a small city at the entrance of the desert. For the first time in my life, I saw these huge waves of sand that make our idealized idea of what “desert” is. Later I learned that the desert is not made of fine sand everywhere, that most of it is actually rocky landscapes. But I must say how astonishing it was to see these dunes of sand. It felt to me just as sailing on a boat: the landscape was changing every few dozen of meters, as my eyes surfed on continuous ridges, from one dune to the other.

Having experienced a fascinating trip to the desert, I went back to Marrakech to rest and visit what I had not had time to see so far: gardens. Marrakech houses two major – and yet very different – gardens. First, there is the Majorelle Garden, that was conceived in the 20^th century by French Orientalist Jacques Majorelle and then Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé. It is a quite peculiar garden, and it looks like an artist haven, with its “Majorelle blue” that characterizes the place.

But I must confess I have very classical tastes, and even more than the Majorelle Garden, I was in owe in the “Secret Garden”, that was rebuilt in only 4 years during the 2010s, on the basis of an old traditional Islamic garden. All the water system, all the trees and plants, all the little pieces of ceramics were settled one by one by artisans who worked with traditional techniques. I sat in this garden for a long moment, listening at the running water of the fountains and at the birds chirping.

The Marrakech hotel where I spent my nights just looked like a palace from The Tales of the Arabian Nights. The Sebban Palace, that is located only 15 minutes away North-West from the Jemaa el-Fnaa Square, was rebuilt on the basis of a 19^th-century palace. Just as for the Secret garden, traditional artisans used their techniques to rebuild a place that looks traditional in every aspect. Just as in a palace, the ceilings are minutely carved, and all the rooms are hidden behind carved wood latticework windows. A beautiful pool magnifies the central court that serves as a restaurant, but there are also numerous little spots where clients can rest and enjoy their day on the rooftop. You can easily guess how I spent my days when I was done visiting the turbulent city.