If we start a imaginary trip from the Dardanelles to Gibraltar Greece start traveling, a marine country par excellence, where every step you take, takes you to a grain of history. Before touching the peninsula, the traveler a glimpse of a variety of islands: Corfu, Mykonos, Lesbos, Milo (where was found the famous Venus, now exhibited in the Louvre), Rhodes and many others, whitewashed villages and fishermen on the blue Mediterranean.

Facade of the Parthenon in Greece
Crete, the largest, is itself a civilization. Country of kings of legend, has the remains of the palace of Knossos, with its labyrinth of Daedalus and Lions Gate, samples of the advanced and refined culture. On the peninsula we will see in Athens, the great city of marble Peloponnese place to stroll, walk, sunbathe alongside timeless ruins: the Acropolis, which dominates the city and, at its peak, the Parthenon by Phidias, temples and museums like the National, which covers the entire collections of Greek history from the Neolithic to Roman times.

In Piraeus, the typical restaurants and taverns deserve a visit to taste wine resinous. Greek Dionysus taught man to cultivate the vines and make wine. The Iliad and the Odyssey are rife with references to the nectar of the gods. Corinth, the raisins, becomes the hinge of the Peloponnese, Greece condenses here and where it is inexcusable to visit Sparta and Olympia.

Abandoning the Hellenic peninsula to the Adriatic Sea visualize Albania, a mountainous country little known and disseminated, but beautiful, then look at the Yugoslav coast, with the nine hundred islands and islets Dalmatian and Montenegrin splendid beaches. Here you cannot escape to try the kefir (fine ricotta), the excellent cheese and paprika Yugoslavs that has little to envy to the Hungarian.

The other side of the Adriatic, Italy. If a city elsewhere, perhaps enough to summarize an entire people, here the attention is dispersed in many cities and landscapes as beautiful as diverse. All of Italy is a tribute to art, with its burst in the Quattrocento, when, under the leadership of the Medici, a great throng of artists renewed forms and techniques. The enormous diversity, characteristic of Italian art, combined with the abundance of places worth visiting, the traveler will literally not know where to go.

Piazza San Marco in Venice
If we limit our imaginary visit to the coast, we cannot miss Venice «the pearl of the Adriatic coast with its famous Piazza San Marco, Grand Canal, the Accademia Gallery, the vibrant Sicilian Palermo, Naples, Pisa with its famous square the Duorno, with the Leaning Tower and the Baptistery, Genoa, distinguished by its many palaces and streets.

The cuisine is also stressed in the beautiful Italy, Italian cuisine demands to be savored in the same place, under the bright Italian sun and the air. The fish, pasta (macaroni, pizza, ravioli), rice, sausages (bologna from Bologna) and, as throughout the Mediterranean, garlic, tomatoes, oil, and as no wine and the now famous vermouth, Italian invention is now international appetizer.

In Sicily, an island of which Goethe said: ‘You can get an idea of Italy without seeing Sicily before, «the traveler must stop if only to enjoy some sea snails.

Italian Sardinia and Corsica gala, mountain agriculture and livestock, serve as a transit to the Riviera, from La Spezia to Saint-Tropez, famous for its coastal scenery and mild winters, which make tourism is concentrated there.

In the Riviera, the Principality of Monaco, with its famous Casino and the Oceanographic Museum, the world’s finest collections of marine flora and fauna, San Remo, Cannes, Saint-Tropez. We imagine these names with the luxury and glamor of life for artists and celebrities, where the eccentric is a space.

Marseilles is the largest commercial port in France, say goodbye to our imaginary journey Gaul, offering the cuisine of Provence, is unique in the world, the prototype of the landlocked and bouillabaisse, the soup that holds within it all the flavor of the sea.

Already in Spanish lands the traveler can rest, near the end of the Mediterranean voyage: the Straits of Gibraltar or Pillars of Hercules as he was called ancient travelers. In Spain you will enjoy the Catalan sausages, rice of Valencia and Murcia, the Gamba traditional Majorcan, gazpacho, fried fish and of course, the traditional and fragrant wines of the Iberian peninsula, cherished and sought after in times of the Romans and in current times.

The Mediterranean is an invitation to peace!