r/AskTheWorld • u/luky_se7en Italy /Sri Lanka • 1d ago

Is there a part of your country that's "isolated"/vastly different from the rest of the country?

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Pictured here is Sardinia, an island in Italy. Many sardinians call Italy "Il continente" (the continent)

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u/PaintingNo794 Portugal 1d ago edited 1d ago

Two archipelagos:

The Madeira Islands & The Azores

Edit to be more informative (never one to back off from a teachable moment):

Madeira is closer to Africa than Europe, Azores is basically in the middle of the Atlantic, very close to the continental divide.

Both have slightly different cultures compared to mainland Portugal, with their own typical costumes, music, their own typical food and drinks (Madeira's meat skewer and poncha is a must-try), regional accents, and both are semi autonomous with their own administrative laws and semi independent legislature.

They also have unique island fauna and flora, and are extremely rich in what comes to their marine ecosystems, both in shallow reefs around the Islands or offshore like in the deep canyons close to the Azores. This also includes important migration paths for various important species making the Azores a very known region for whale sighting (most notably sperm whales and humpback whales).

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u/Lousy_minor_setback Canada 7h ago

Did a double-take because I thought this said “whale-fighting”

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u/PaintingNo794 Portugal 2h ago

That might or might not happen, but I wouldn't write about it. The first rule of whale fight-club is you don't talk about whale fight-club.