Every traveller who visits the Mediterranean risks losing his heart to it. This sea exerts a mysterious attraction, a captivating magic power. The Mare Mediterraneum has a greater impact on the lives of people living on and around its coastline than almost any other body of water. It fills the plates of the local inhabitants with a lavish abundance of seafood. The climate, which is mild almost all year round, is the result of the sea’s influence and ensures plentiful crops of sweet, juicy fruit and aromatic vegetables. The long spring and the legendary hot summer make for superb wines to accompany the local food. The crops grow and flourish with hardly any human intervention.

Anyone accustomed to this kind of privileged lifestyle and plentiful harvests finds that the true enjoyment of food and drink is not merely one of the pleasures which they indulge in occasionally when time permits. It becomes a guaranteed, natural right which they expect every day. And this has its side effects, in particular on their approach to life.

This pleasing Mediterranean atmosphere is what brings the peaceful expression to the face of the businessman, as he sits down to lunch in the shade of the plane trees in a Catalonian town. As on every other day of the year, he will enjoy his meal to the full. It will not end abruptly when his mobile phone rings, but – at the earliest – when his spoon falls gently back into his empty dessert bowl. This ubiquitous inner peace, which is the result of the warm air, the good life and the bright sunlight, makes it quite natural for a bus driver to take his children to the shady market hall on his day off and show them how to tell with gentle pressure of the finger whether a soft cheese is ripe. He has the pleasant feeling of teaching his children something which is sure to help them live a fulfilled and happy life. The sense of peace also affects the 80-year-old lady in a café in a dreamy little coastal town, who is inspired to give the waiter a pair of scissors, so that he can cut any bad news out of the newspaper before she reads it.

This brings us back to the scientists, who all agree that this approach to life is certain to lengthen your lifespan. Heaven can wait!

Text: Hans Kantereit