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Hi everyone, and welcome!
We are incredibly excited to open this space for travelers and food lovers who believe that exploring the Mediterranean should also mean protecting its unique way of life. Global organizations like the UNWTO and the FAO consistently remind us that the Mediterranean Diet relies on the survival of local ecosystems, biodiversity, and small-scale family farming. When we choose to travel responsibly, we play a direct role in keeping these ancestral food systems alive.
Gastronomic tourism centered around the Mediterranean Diet isn’t just about finding a great restaurant—it is about connecting with the landscapes, the heritage, and the communities that cultivate the ingredients. We want this forum to be a place to share Mediterranean travel tips, stories, and hidden rural gems.
To get our very first discussion started, please reply below and tell us:-Where are you joining us from? 🌍
-What is your favorite travel memory centered around the Mediterranean Diet? (e.g., visiting a traditional family olive oil mill, learning artisanal fishing methods in a coastal village, or harvesting seasonal produce at a rural eco-farm?) 🍇
-How do you try to support local host communities and eat sustainably when traveling around the Mediterranean? 🌿Introduce yourself below, tell us your stories, and let’s discover how we can experience the incredible Mediterranean Diet while preserving it for generations to come!
Hello everyone!
It’s great to see this forum open. I am delighted to join the conversation as part of the MedDiet Go! project team. Our strategic goal is to promote the values of the Mediterranean diet as a sustainable tourism resource. I am joining from Seville, Spain, where I represent the Official Chamber of Commerce.
One of my favourite travel memories centred on the Mediterranean diet was a recent trip to Portugal in the framework of the MedDiet Go! project, where we visited the Raya restaurant in Praia Fluvial Azenhas D’el Rei. It was a fantastic experience, showcasing traditional cuisine and the riverine landscape, and demonstrating how the Mediterranean diet can adapt to local ecosystems beyond the coast. Connecting with local gastronomy and the environment is an essential pillar of the MedDiet Go!
In order to support local host communities and to eat sustainably, I actively seek out models that prioritise healthy, sustainable produce. This involves connecting with local producers by buying from markets and short supply chains, which directly benefits rural economies. I also advocate regenerative tourism initiatives that contribute to quality tourism and the promotion of local heritage.
I look forward to reading your inspiring stories and discovering how we can preserve the Mediterranean diet.
Kind regards
Nazaret
One of my strongest memories connected to the Mediterranean Diet is not a single dish, but the experience of rural and coastal territories that I visited during these years of project, where food, landscape and community life are deeply connected: olive groves, small farms, local markets, family-run restaurants, fishermen’s villages and inland areas where recipes still depend on seasonality, biodiversity and local knowledge. In these places, eating becomes a way to understand the territory and the people who keep it alive.
For me, responsible Mediterranean tourism means choosing local producers, small restaurants, community-based experiences and seasonal food chains, rather than consuming the territory only as a destination. It also means respecting rural communities, supporting family farming, valuing traditional know-how and avoiding forms of tourism that standardise local cultures.
This is also one of the key ambitions of the MDG network: to improve local awareness, help local communities to connect Mediterranean Diet values with sustainable tourism, digital tools and territorial cooperation, helping travellers discover authentic local experiences while strengthening the communities, ecosystems and food systems behind them. The Mediterranean Diet can become a bridge between heritage, responsible travel and transition toward a green and innovative local development, if we experience it with care and awareness.
Hi everyone, glad to find this community.
I’m originally from the Gargano area in Puglia—the spur of the Italian boot. It’s a pretty rugged part of the coast, and growing up there really shaped how I see food.
Whenever people talk about the Mediterranean diet, my mind just goes straight back to my grandmother making pancotto. Honestly, boiled stale bread probably doesn’t sound like a culinary masterpiece to most people, but she’d cook it down with potatoes, green beans, and a ton of garlic. Then she would drench the whole thing in our raw, local olive oil. Back then, nobody used terms like “zero-waste” or “sustainable food systems.” It was just a regular Tuesday, and you simply didn’t throw away a good loaf of old bread. That everyday resourcefulness is what the real Mediterranean diet means to me.
I guess that’s why I look for the exact same feeling when I travel now. I try to hunt down the oldest, most historic traditional restaurants I can find. I love sitting in a place that has been serving the exact same regional recipes for decades. Eating at those generational, sometimes rough-around-the-edges spots feels like the most genuine way to support the local economy and keep the actual culinary culture alive.
Excited to read your recommendations and stories here!
Hi everyone, glad to find this community.
I’m originally from the Gargano area in Puglia—the spur of the Italian boot. It’s a pretty rugged part of the coast, and growing up there really shaped how I see food.
Whenever people talk about the Mediterranean diet, my mind just goes straight back to my grandmother making pancotto. Honestly, boiled stale bread probably doesn’t sound like a culinary masterpiece to most people, but she’d cook it down with potatoes, green beans, and a ton of garlic. Then she would drench the whole thing in our raw, local olive oil. Back then, nobody used terms like “zero-waste” or “sustainable food systems.” It was just a regular Tuesday, and you simply didn’t throw away a good loaf of old bread. That everyday resourcefulness is what the real Mediterranean diet means to me.
I guess that’s why I look for the exact same feeling when I travel now. I try to hunt down the oldest, most historic traditional restaurants I can find. I love sitting in a place that has been serving the exact same regional recipes for decades. Eating at those generational, sometimes rough-around-the-edges spots feels like the most genuine way to support the local economy and keep the actual culinary culture alive.
Excited to read your recommendations and stories here!
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