Prof. Olga Nickole Kuyan
15 Sept 2021
The Studio Legale Laricella is launching the Initiative on the Mediterranean Lifestyle
We do not create something from nothing. This idea comes from the Sicilian land, from the central Mediterranean Sea. Our Initiative is not a heroic effort to concentrate on the problem of the Mediterranean diet (MeDi), a healthy-eating plan with the traditional flavors and cooking methods of Sicily, in particular, supported by the Mayo Clinic, among others. Within the international debate on a shift towards more sustainable food systems and diets, interest in the Mediterranean diet as a model of a sustainable diet has increased. The notion of the Mediterranean diet has undergone a progressive evolution over the past 50 years – from that of a healthy dietary pattern for the heart to a model of a sustainable diet.
Yes, in Sicily and in Italy the love for food is beyond every love. Italians like the ingredients they use, fresh and subtly seasoned and spiced with their taste. Whichever region or culture you adopt the two famous Sicilian and Italian diets always remain famous in every culture. And a high adherence to MeDi, non-smoking and physical activity are strongly associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality in healthy subjects after long-term follow-up. MeDi is a significant part of Mediterranean food systems, from consumption to production – not just a diet, but more as a lifestyle, an expression of the diversity of Mediterranean food systems and cultures and their different culinary systems.
We are creating the idea and creating is fun because it's a game. A game that comes to us from the Creator who, playing, created Italy and Sicily. Unlike Italian land, which is almost entirely Latin sounds inspired, the Sicilian one has elements of Greek, Arabic, French, Catalan, and Spanish voices.
The uniqueness of the Sicilian experience is perhaps summed up best by author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in Sicily's most famous novel, Il Gattopardo (The Leopard). In one memorable passage, his protagonist the Prince of Salina tries to explain the Sicilian character to a Piedmontese representative of the new Kingdom of Italy as follows: 'This violence of landscape, this cruelty of climate, this continual tension in everything, and even these monuments of the past, magnificent yet incomprehensible because not built by us and yet standing round us like lovely mute ghosts…All these things have formed our character…'
We've found a point of view that touches us very much: "History of Roman Religion" by Franz Altheim, by an authoritative German scholar, bearer of an idea of history that is profoundly different from the derivation we are used to.
According to Altheim, the Roman religion was born from the encounter between Mediterranean spirituality and that of Indo-European derivation. Analyzing the rock paintings spread throughout Europe, the scholar recognizes a first Mediterranean layer relating to the "civilization of the bull", from which the very name of Italy would derive, the land of the bulls, which was later overtaken by the "civilization of the deer", widespread throughout the north of Eurasia, accompanied not only by depictions of deer, but also by solar symbols. The Camuni of Val Camonica are therefore proof of the arrival of the deer civilization in Italy. The two civilizations between them had many values in common and therefore probably amalgamated over time ... etc ..
Reading this book is very interesting if you want to discover the essence of the civilization from which we are born.
We do not create something from nothing - like small icicles created from the air - we put the new grane to grow, starting from something that already exists and first of all starting from the love for the Sicilian land and also from the real things we have in Sicily: Find Time to meditate; Be stylish without too much effort; Eat to live. Eat to celebrate; Share your life. Be with family; Be Hungry (for life, in life); Enjoy Life and simple things; Connect with and respect nature; Move Naturally; Laugh Often; Be Productive, We base on Identity, Public vs Private, a Woman's Place, Saints & Sinners, Immigration & Emigration. Leo Tolstoy in "War and Peace" wrote: “Thoughts that have important consequences are always simple. All my thinking could be summed up with these words: "Since corrupt people unite amongst themselves to constitute a force, then honest people must do the same." It's as simple as that.”
So Mediterranean Lifestyle is an idea that comes from our love. Love sharpens the wits and creates inventions. And, by inventions, we don't mean just the visible ones. We mean invisible inventions. An invisible invention is something that cannot be seen but can be used. It is a new way of delivering services, of teaching something, and of stimulating the education of others. Invisible inventions are as powerful as visible ones.
Our idea is everything. Do not betray it and it will tell you everything there is to know. Now it is enough that we continue to work hard for the result to have the same look, the same atmosphere, the same sounds and to be exactly identical to the idea.
It's weird, when you stray from the path, somehow you know it. You understand that you are doing something that you are not used to doing, and you do it because you feel it. We feel that our idea is everything. It is like a butterfly that we cannot take off her wings, it is like the star, our idea is a mother's voice that you thought you had lost, it is like the smile of the father. It is not nice if our idea will be stifled (many ideas were stifled), our idea needs the lifeblood in the form of an organized project and immediate action. An idea must be cultivated, it must be nurtured immediately, as soon as it is born. Each extra minute of life gives it a better chance of survival. Criticism, doubts are the basis of the abortion of all ideas that do not reach the practical implementation stage.
We are launching the Initiative on the Mediterranean Lifestyle, the idea to unite people amongst themselves to constitute a force.
And then, you know, we pass, men pass, but the ideas remain. Their inspiration remains and it will continue to walk on the legs of our children.