The Mediterranean diet
Did you know that the Mediterranean Diet is on the Representative List of the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ since 2013?
I’ve just found out and… got moved!
Eating together is the foundation of the cultural identity and continuity of communities throughout the Mediterranean basin. 
It plays a vital role in cultural spaces, festivals and celebrations, bringing together people of all ages, conditions and social classes. It includes the craftsmanship and production of traditional receptacles for the transport, preservation and consumption of food, including ceramic plates and glasses. 
Women play an important role in transmitting knowledge of the Mediterranean diet: they safeguard its techniques, respect seasonal rhythms and festive events, and transmit the values of the element to new generations. Markets also play a key role as spaces for cultivating and transmitting the Mediterranean diet during the daily practice of exchange, agreement and mutual respect. (source: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/mediterranean-diet-00884)
wherelemonsblossom.wordpress.com 
Love this human look at the Mediterranean diet Simona– Food surely is best if shared with family and friends. It would be fun to see a list of foods that represent the Mediterranean diet in your part of Italy!! Hope this finds you well and enjoying good meals with tables full of dear people… Great post Simona! Always love checkin in our your blog! xox
The sharing of food made with love lowers my blood pressure and makes me happy to be in Southern Italy where processed food is forbidden on any table. Thanks again for blogging.
Hi Midge! You’re absolutely right! Cooking for family or friends – or simply cooking with love for anyone – has such a good impact on our health and mind. Grazie a te for leaving your comment. Buon fine settimana!
Eating a meal with family and friends is huge. I think we humans have been doing it since before we first hit rocks together to start a fire. That’s why it is so important to our health, it’s built in. Ciao Simona.
Missing you Simona! How has your summer gone?? Has your orchestra been performing? Have you vacationed?? Gone to your family vacation home?? Hope all’s well with you and you’re enjoying the last summer days… hugs hugs!
Hi Rhonda! You are so sweet and caring, grazie! You are such a good blogging friend, really! I feel so bad for not posting for such a long time. Actually we had a loss in our family which kept us away from work and other activities. We are doing fine now. We went back to Berlin in July. For the rest, we mostly stayed in Pesaro, taking Costanza to the beach, and enjoying doing things together as a family. I got back to work today after 3 weeks of vacation. Even if working from home gives me plenty of time to live 🙂 What about you and your large lovely family? Have you gone somewhere for the Summer? Are you all fine? Thank you again for caring. You must be of great support to the people around you. Hugs and kisses. xoxo
HI Simona– sad and sorry to hear about your family loss. Thankful you are OK. Berlin sounds exciting! Do you have family there or were you just touristing?? And it sounds like you made the most of your summer at home… We are just back from our daughter’s wedding in Wisconsin — it was 3 days with family & friends in the woods at a camp. Beautiful and a sweet time. I posted pictures yesterday. So glad to hear from you, thankful that it’s been a full summer for you. Happy back to work!! Blessings friend. xo
Ciao Rhonda! Congratulations on your daughter’s wedding in Wisconsin! You posted such beautiful pictures! Yes, Berlin is a lively city and despite its being destroyed during WWII, yet they did a gret job with modern buildings and restoration works. It is so full of museums and plenty of things to do with children (the Berlin Zoo, the boat on the Spree river, Legoland, the Spy Museum, the Museum of Technology… all interactive). That is a city where I would like to live! Besides I majored in German (many many years ago) and it was fun to brush up my dusty German. The first week of work is not going so bad. We are lucky enough to have nice weather here and we can afford going to the beach when I’m finished working. Have a nice week and blessings to you and your family too, mia amica! Hugs
Wow Simona– your trip to Berlin sounds amazing!! I really would love to visit there one day– I’ve heard how beautiful and modern is now. I took German too– but only in high school, but it has come in useful on trips to Germany or Eastern Europe when we lived nearby. It’s funny how those words are stored in your head, if you can just pull them out! Well, wonder if you will post pictures of your travels– hope so!! Enjoy getting back settled in your routine… hugs from here.
I think too, Rhonda, that the foreign languages we learn, but do not use, are stored somewhere in our head and just pop out (even if a bit rusty) when we need them. To keep up my German I often read comic strips in German! I would love to post pictures from my trip to Berlin, but I guess that I should post about Italy here 🙂 Who knows, though? I may make an exception. The temptation is too big! Hugs from Italy too!
Hi Simona! Fun way to keekp up your German! I tried reading a thick Spanish novel and it was too much work, looking up words I hadn’t learned and slugging through it. I like your idea better! And maybe you could post your Berlin photos as The Italian Traveler!! Glad you home and had such a beautiful trip. Happy back to school to Costanza– not long now! xoxo
Ciao Rhonda! You gave me such a good idea! Posting my Berlin photos as The Italian Traveler! Well, thank you so much! I’ll do it soon. Belin is in my heart 🙂 As far as your Spanish is concerned, well don’t give up! I guess you just have to brush it up and it will come back to you. Costanza is (moderately) happy to go back to school… Here children have very long Summer holidays… 3 months! And it’s hard to start again 😉 Have a nice day. Hugs!
Hi Simona– 3 months of summer sounds like a wonderful idea! It seems like we always wished we had just a couple weeks more of freedom at the end of summer. Hope she has the best teachers and sweet friends as she goes back. We went to our 3 grand-girls “Back to School Night” for parents last week and met their teachers and friends– love that! Here’s to a great year ahead… xoxo
Yes, Rhonda. Costanza has great teachers whom we trust and are fond of. 9 out of 20 pupils in her classroom come from her kindergarten (or preschool… I’m not sure how you call it in English). She has quite a lot of friends and it’s so nice when they come over to our house to play or do their homework together. That is one of the great advantages of quitting my previous job… Now I have much more time to devote to her, to my family and friends (blogging friends too!), and to the activities that matter to me. Have a nice weekend! Hugs from Pesaro 🙂
That is an important trade off– jobs and family and friends and time to do things you love. And especially time to savor the days with Costanza as she grows– it al goes so fast! Hope her school year and time with friends goes so well ahead… xox
Ciao Rhonda, my high-school friend Denise just came over and brought us some delicious chocolate from Switzerland. She visited with her 11 year-old-daughter who gets along so well with Costanza. Friendship – amicizia – is really one of life’s true blessings. Thank you for the good wishes for Costanza starting school on Friday. A lot of excitement around here 🙂 Hugs
Very healthy