Quote Originally Posted by AL14 View Post
For example, from my perspective (Italy), eastern Europe is everything east of Vien and Berlin and south of Scandinavia. Hell even baltic republics are east Europe for us. The only exception is Greece, Greece is not east but Albania and Macedonia (or should we say north macedonia soon?) are!
I think this is due mainly from the iron courtain which has divided the continent for half a century. Your image is something like a Subregion map of Europe right? Well I can say that it does not show how Europe is perceived by a lot of its inhabitants.
From that point of view instead, your country together with Poland and others is part of "middeleurope" the "Mitteleuropa" which actually has strongest root in the history.
What I also notice is the green for Italy and Greece but I was sure that from other Europe countries we were also in the same club as Spain, Portugal, maybe even France as southern Europe states.
Well I'm Italian as well but I don't share that view, I guess because I've always looked at the continent with a geographical eye. Hell, some people think Europe ends at the Russian border instead of the Ural Mountains.
But yes, many people here see Italy as South or even West Europe, then if you mention Slovenia they say it's East Europe. Then you make them notice that with that view there would be no Central Europe and that East Europe would be two/three times as big as Western Europe.
I guess the "political (outdated) map" is still influencial, but we have to consider that countries are shaped in many different ways so you cannot always place one in a definite region. For example, I've always thought of Poland as Central-East Europe, because it's quite a "large" country.
And I consider a good part of Italy as part as the Mittle Europa, also because of its history... if you look at the Mitropa Rally Cup, they have always multiple rounds in Italy, mainly in North-East but also more South in Casentino.
Well, I also apologise for the OT