Mediterráneo (Mediterranean) is the title of a beautiful song by the Catalan singer-songwriter, Joan Manuel Serrat, which is about his soul as a sailor and the special light reflected by the sea:
A tus atardeceres rojos
se acostumbraron mis ojos
como el recodo al camino…
¿Qué le voy hacer, si yo
nacà en el Mediterráneo?
To your red evenings
my eyes grow accustomed
clike a bend in the road
What am I to do, for I
was born in the Mediterranean?
It was called the Roman Mare Nostrum owing to the fact that all the land on its shores had been conquered by Rome. Before then, it had played an important role in history, with Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians as protagonists, since its waters bathed the three peninsulas of Southern Europe (Iberia, Italy and the Balkans) and one of Asia (Anatolia). And it will continue to play an important role. Because speaking about the Mediterranean is the same as referring to a gentle climate that has always favoured human occupation; a cuisine that is rich in products from the sea and vegetables; in short, a culture.
The Spanish Mediterranean stretches of along Catalonia, Valencia, Murcia and the Balearic Islands and part of East Andalusia. A territory that offers many tourist attractions: beaches, historical-artistic heritage, natural reserves, popular festivals, traditions, gastronomy, sports activities… The options are many and varied.
Mediterranean cuisine comprises a delicious and varied gastronomy and has a well-deserved reputation as healthy.This cuisine does not belong to one country in particular, as its name suggests. The geographical area to which it belongs covers all the countries that look onto the Mediterranean Sea. It gives rise to cuisines as popular as the Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Greek gastronomy, etc.
The Mediterranean diet consists of a way of life, not only a diet that combines ingredients from local farming recipes and cooking methods that are typical of each place, shared meals, celebrations and traditions, which, together with moderate daily physical exercise and a good climate, complete this lifestyle that modern science suggests we should adopt in benefit of our health, turning it into an excellent and healthy model way of life. Accordingly, we can say that the Mediterranean diet is a lifestyle.