Author Profile: Heather Daveno

I arrive in Carcassonne after dark and an hour before the hotel closes. It’s not the most interesting hotel of the trip and the concierge does not speak English. But the room is adequate and it’s a 4 minute walk from the train station, which will make a smoother 6 AM departure on my final day...   view more

After the docent tour, I pay for a self-guided tour that will give me access to Carcassonne’s ramparts. There are two walls – the inner wall built during the Roman era, and a taller outer wall built after the Albigensian Crusade of 1209. The two walls together include 52 towers and barbicans, placed at 15 meter intervals. It takes nearly two hours to circumnavigate the city, and a great many stairs are...   view more

Carcassonne is a city in two parts, divided by the Aude River. After visiting the Medieval City, I poked around the Bastide Saint Louis, which had its own historical notes to mention...   view more

In spite of it being Mother’s Day, the city isn’t horribly crowded and I get some decent shots of the the storefront shutters. One of the locks was stainless steel but of Chinese...   view more

Less than 10 minutes down the street, I meet the rally head on, or what the Genovans refer to as a “Public Manifestation.” The Transportation Union strike has shut the ferries down, and a police escort is clearing the street for about 200 marchers who follow a pick-up truck that is blasting music from huge stereo speakers stacked in the...   view more

My first task this morning is to time a walk to the train station, from where I will depart for Genoa tomorrow. I browse for breakfast to-go and cross the street to buy a day pass for the city bus. My first blisters appear at 11...   view more

We are on the road to Marrakech. You can almost hear everyone humming the Crosby, Still & Nash song to themselves … After passing through an unremarkable landscape, our first glimpse of Marrakech is of a medina in the distance, with a mass of rooftop satellite dishes offering a stark contrast to both the sand colored walls and the brilliant blue...   view more

Fez has been predominately Muslim since 789; yet almost every city in Morocco has a Jewish quarter, and Fez is no exception. Our first stop is the Jewish Cemetery, one of the oldest in Morocco, dating to the 7th-8th centuries. I remarked on the square openings at the end of some of the sarcophagi, and learn that it is where a candle is lit for the...   view more

Chefchaouen was built in 1471 by Moulay el Ben Rashid ed Alami, a Moorish exile from Spain. It served as a refuge for Moriscos and Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition and was also a stronghold against the Portuguese. It’s Jewish population painted the town blue during the 1930’s, possibly to control mosquitos, though the actual reason seems open to...   view more

Rabat was founded in the 10th century near the Roman port of Sala, and became the capitol city under the reign of Caliph Yacoub el-Mansour after his victory over Alfonso VIII at the Battle of Alarcos in 1195. After the caliph’s death, the city declined for the next several centuries until being settled by the Moors who were expelled from Spain in 1610. It regained its status as a capitol during the French occupation in...   view more

My introduction to Morocco begins in Casablanca, the largest city in the country with about 31 million people. The city was originally Berber, and was destroyed at least twice over the past 8-9...   view more

After spending the morning at the Ikelene Mosque in Tinghir and the stunning Todra Gorge, we drive through some pretty stark contrasts in landscape before arriving in Skoura. We check in to the Ait Ben Moro, an 18th century kasbah that has been converted into a guest...   view more