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Similarities is that a lot of people from these areas could pass for each other.
Other similarities is that most of them are Catholic except for Greece with is mostly Orthodox.
France is for true the less traditional in religion and culture in general.
Most of Italy is second to France in being less traditional.
Greece, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Sicily are more traditional in culture and religion.
Differences is with food is that some cook with more olive oil or eat olives and others with less while instead use lard and creams.
Greece is mostly traditionally Mediterranean in that it uses olive oil, olives, less cream and fats in foods or most meals which is why for example their cheeses are less fatty tasty and rather drier or wet/flaky instead, although it uses yogurts and meats, yogurts are probably from the Italians, the cuisine also their cuisine is influenced by Ottoman/Middle Eastern cuisine which why names will point to a Turkish, Arabic and Persian origin.
Spain is very traditionally Mediterranean by the fact it uses olive oil, olives, hardly no cream, no fats in their which why it is healthier than most if not all European cuisines, instead they rely on mixed stews with vegetables, for desserts they is hardly no chocolate, cream cake etc, but instead a crispy fitter, drum almonds, pancakes made with blood etc it also takes a lot of influences from North African cuisines.
Malta is also like Spain very traditionally Mediterranean, in fact the most due to it's influences from Middle Eastern, North African and Arabic cuisines, so expect a lot of olives, olive oils used in foods.
Sicily the cuisine is fairly diverse that it has influences from Spain, Greece, the Middle East and North Africa.
Sicily uses a lot of olives, apricots, fruits, pasta, pizza, cinnamon, swordfish, fried arancini/rice balls, tuna etc, stil, very Meidterranean in aspect.
Mainland Italy is more diverse that it has not only influences from other parts of the mainland and France, also from Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia even the Slavs.
Which is why they tend to have a lot of creamy, lardy with quite less olives or olive oils (except in Campania, Apulia etc), as to foods which have a lot of cheeses, pizza, pasta, rice , breads, polenta, yogurts, eggs, desserts such as tiramisu, pastry etc.
France is extremely diverse that it has cuisines from around almost every corner from Europe anyway.
The cuisines are heavy surrounded by wines, cheeses, quiches, soups, baguettes, mustards, fishes, salmons, desserts such as mousse au chocolat, crème brulee, mille-feuille etc, which is why there is no surprise when fats, meats are highly used.
I agree with cloxias. I would only add that Mediterranean peoples from Iberia to Turkey tend to take offense more easily than peoples from more northerly latitudes.
Yes I know there are more, but I choosed those ones, and yes I know Portugal doesn't have mediterranean coast, but people and culture are Mediterranean.
I'd dispute this. The overall demeanor and temperment of Portuguese people is far from the typical Southern European/Mediterranean. They seem, to me, more serious and stern like we think of the French and not warm/friendly/overly loud like we think of the Mediterranean.
Europe, western Europe, is a Germanic/Latin meld. The Germanic warrior class came and kicked butt, and they're still kicking butt. That's the reality among men on the ground, no matter what the alphabet, legal system and religious or other social ideology. Ask Charlemagne and the Normans, north and south.
Again, what is that pride really worth?
The Germanic warrior class, I guess you are referring to Gardingos or Wardens in Visigoth, as well as the Roman Empire Equites dispappeared more than 1200 years.
You are talking about European history as it was a comic, or just a 200 years old history.
The Germanic, Caucasian (part of Visigoths) Iranian (Avars), Mongolian (Huns, Magyars and Bulgars) and Slavic invasions were very few and "melted into the civilized world". They adopted the Latin culture in the case of the Roman Western Empire and the culture of Byzantium in the case of the Eastern Empire.
The "Mediterranean" culture was so strong that expanded, through Christianism, the the lands beyond the Rhine that were left empty after their inhabitants settled on the sunny side during the 3, 4 and 5th centuries and were resettled by strange people strange to the civilized world.
Slavics also received the Mediterranean culture.
The Germanic culture was very limited, they certainly made good jewelry, metalcraft, interesting but barbaric laws and that's about it...their culture was under the form of sagas, their alphabets were runes, very primitive. Normans and Charlemagne were "Latin" (at that time, being Latin meant they were Catholic and spoke Latin). Latin was the denomination used by Buzantynes.
No, Virginia is American, I don't think it has nothing to do with Europe.
Unfortunately, Americans and Latin Americans are impregnated with 19th century Romanticism and Nazi/Recialist propaganda.
I'd dispute this. The overall demeanor and temperment of Portuguese people is far from the typical Southern European/Mediterranean. They seem, to me, more serious and stern like we think of the French and not warm/friendly/overly loud like we think of the Mediterranean.
If the Portuguese were serious like f.e. the French and the northern Italians they wouldn't be the poorest country in Europe.
Location: Near Tours, France about 47°10'N 0°25'E
2,825 posts, read 5,263,867 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GloriaEstefan
If the Portuguese were serious like f.e. the French and the northern Italians they wouldn't be the poorest country in Europe.
We the french are not really "serious", unfortunally. Spain and northern Italy are much more well organised than france for exemple, while southern Italy is the least organised of the romance areas in Europe.
We the french are not really "serious", unfortunally. Spain and northern Italy are much more well organised than france for exemple, while southern Italy is the least organised of the romance areas in Europe.
Portugal is no less a ramshackle mess than southern Italy is. It just ain't so "advertized".
Location: Segovia, central Spain, 1230 m asl, Csb Mediterranean with strong continental influence, 40º43 N
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tarzan_taborda
Religion
From Spain to Croatia mostly catholic, albania/bosnia mostly muslims, greece/montenegro mostly orthodox
Weather/landscape
Spanish eastern coast is very dry, some areas are classified as deserts, while Montenegro has some of the rainniest areas of Europe, this obviously reflects on the landscape
There are only few areas in eastern Spanish coast that have Mediterranean semiarid climate, as most of coastal Almeria, overall coastal Murcia and southern coastal Alicante. Any of them are true arid climates.
Anywhere north of Alicante on the eastern coast or west of western Almeria on the southern coast are not Mediterranean semiarid at all, just typical Mediterranean.
There are some areas located inland that have Mediterranean semiarid climate too, just the Ebro valley from southern Navarra to southwestern quadrant of Lleida province.
The rest of the inland areas of Iberian peninsula have typical Mediterranean climate with some continental influence, except the far north and northwest which have oceanic climate and their landcapes are as green as, say, northwestern France or Ireland.
I know you're a weather enthusiast, so just letting others know this.
Last edited by overdrive1979; 05-03-2014 at 02:22 PM..
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