‘A man’s culture is essentially the sum of his memories,’ wrote José Manuel Melim Mendes in his bilingual book Memories of Porto Santo and Madeira. If so, the collective mental culture of Madeira island is surely one of kaleidoscopic richness: aquamarine waves, violet hydrangea, emerald forests and purple cumulonimbus. Here be sounds of cracking shorelines, whale songs and wind whistled peaks. Madeira is an oddly unique geographical and cultural blip—a rich little universe of rough mountains and lush slopes slapped by Atlantic breakers off the coast of Africa. Locals revere their flower, organ, philharmonic and wine festivals; annually they parade a trove of impeccably kept family heirloom classic cars throughout the capital city. Their cuisine is generally healthy and rich; their local air is fresh, humid and sweet, and birdsong lights up their sky. The island of Madeira is about three times the size of the U. S. island of Nantucket, twice the area of the British Isle of Wight and slightly larger than Singapore island. Together with the islands of Porto Santo and Desertas and the Selvagens—Madeira forms an autonomous region of the country of Portugal. It sits 550 miles [870 kilometers] west of the Moroccan city of Casablanca—the same distance as from Sacramento to San Diego, or from Geneva to Berlin. The climate is semi-tropical. The Portuguese word madeira means wood, because forests coated the island when navigators first settled its shores in the 15th century. Safe, beautiful and with a balmy climate, this mountainous island is a joy to visit. Yet Madeira was not always accessible. Until recently, exploring the island was arduous. This mountainous land with rugged coasts had unsafe roads and few ports. Residents hiked over heinously steep and rocky mountain trails to visit neighbors in adjacent valleys. Today, the nation’s road network resembles that of Switzerland—with ample tunnels and elevated highways. This engineering allows rapid travel through—instead of over—peaks, and moving from the southern to the northern coast is now facile. The two longest road tunnels are each over 1.9 miles [3 kilometers] long. Thirty-five-year-old Dinarte Fernandes is the mayor of the town of Santana on the northern coast. He believes that Madeira is unique because of the combination of landscape, people and their experiences. He spoke about past challenges to development.‘We are a small island. However, topography stopped our development. Forty years ago—everything was very different. I know older people who never visited the capital city of Funchal. My father grew up in a thatched roofed house with 11 children, and my grandfather would spend one day each week walking to Funchal to sell eggs. In 1986—when Portugal joined the European Community—that did everything for us.’‘Everything’ was providing the island with access to development funds.
All data is taken from the source: [ Ссылка ]
Article Link: [ Ссылка ]
#island #newscast #newstodayabc #newstodayfox #newsworldwide #usanewstoday #
Why Madeira Island Is A World Apart
Теги
islandmadeiracoastcitydevelopmentmemoriesmileskilometersnewspapernews todaynews castnews roomnews dailynews channelnews for todaytech newsnews funnynews nbcnews today updatebbc world news todaynews today abcc n n news todayus news world reportnews today headlinesnews world todaynews today foxnews worldwideu s a news today