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Grappling With Climate Change and Overtourism, Italy Is Betting Big on Train Travel
(www.smithsonianmag.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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Where are you from, out of curiosity?
Spain and Portugal are definitely western than all countries you listed.
Italy is as west as Germany if you check the maps.
Italy and Spain are both south Europe and western Europe.
Western and eastern Europe is a division with ancient roots that goes back to roman empire.
South and north is more geographical to separate "latin" countries from Nordic countries.
France is actually borderline, half southern, half central.
Germany, Austria, switzerland are usually referred as central Europe
The Netherlands.
I see it more as a political and economic devide, hence grouping the German speaking countries also with the western countries.
Southern countries are seen as having a poorer economy, hence not being part of the western countries. The northern ones could be part of the western group, but for some reason they also don't mind being their own corner.
Spain is western than the Netherlands... Those are bs media definitions just to create some sensational news and nationalist politics. In all this bs definitions, for instance, uk is not even "western Europe", because they are just the exceptional empire.
Each country has similar stuff that doesn't makes sense.
Western Europe at the center of europe, while real west Europe (Portugal, Spain, France and uk) are not western, but central europe is west... Just because historically "west" sounds rich and civilized, since western roman empire.
It is a definition for poor journalism and political rhetoric.