#mediterranean

Watching Italians eat (especially men, I have to say) is a form of tourism the books don't tell you about. They close their eyes, raise their eyebrows into accent marks, and make sounds of acute appreciation. It's fairly sexy. Of course I don't know how these men behave at home, if they help with the cooking or are vain and boorish and mistreat their wives. I realized Mediterranean cultures have their issues. Fine, don't burst my bubble. I didn’t want to marry these guys, I just wanted to watch. (p. 247) ↗

— Barbara Kingsolver

#food #italy #mediterranean #food

We thus see that the Greeks of the early ages knew little of any real people except those to the east and south of their own country, or near the coast of the Mediterranean. ↗

— Thomas Bulfinch

#any #coast #country #early #east

The intercourse between the Mediterranean and the North or between the Atlantic and Central Europe was never purely economic or political; it also meant the exchange of knowledge and ideas and the influence of social institutions and artistic and literary forms. ↗

— Christopher Dawson

#artistic #atlantic #between #central #economic

We do not get to this age to be written off. Older people can act as a support system, which is what happens more in Mediterranean countries. People become much wiser as they get older and we should value that. ↗

— Susan Hampshire

#age #become #countries #get #happens

Is France a northern European export powerhouse, or a Mediterranean indebted and dependent economy? Yes to both. ↗

— Francois Hollande

#dependent #economy #european #export #france