Compared to finding vacancies at hotels in other countries, booking a hotel in Iraq is simply a matter of showing up. And that’s exactly what an Italian tourist was doing before his Iraqi vacation ended when Falluja police picked him up fearing for his safety. They offered him a short tour of the city before sending him back to Baghad for a lack of hotels. Before Falluja, Luca Marchio was in Baghad where he was the Coral Palace’s first guest in nearly six years. Through the hotel he paid for a tour including the riverfront, visiting the Scheherazade monument, the artificial lake and Abu Jaafar al-Mansur square. That’s when he hopped on a bus to Falluja whereupon he was picked up after a checkpoint alerted the local police to his presence. Asked why he was in the country, “I am a tourist. I want to see the most important cities in the country. That is the reason why I am here now. I want to see and understand the reality because I have never been here before, and I think every country in the world must be seen.”

Many OmniNerds have been to Iraq … would you ever consider going back one day if the region were at peace?