Across the Mediterranean, weather is mostly exquisite throughout the year. Cities like Valletta, Athens, Marseille, Lisbon and Madrid compete among them as to the sunniest city in Europe.
In Greece, the less sunny cities are found up north with 2,200 hours of sunshine. Nevertheless, if you compare this to London that has 1,410 hours, well, you can perfectly get the picture. As we head down to the south temperature rises just like the hours of sunshine. Athens has some 2,771 hours and if we move even more to the south, Rhodes and Crete have over 3,100 hours of beautiful Mediterranean sun.
| City | Hours of Sun |
| Valletta, Malta | 2957 |
| Marseille, France | 2858 |
| Lisbon, Portugal | 2799 |
| Athens, Greece | 2771 |
| Madrid, Spain | 2769 |
| Monaco, Monaco | 2724 |
| Nice, France | 2724 |
| Tirana, Albania | 2544 |
| Barcelona, Spain | 2524 |
| Podgorica, Montenegro | 2480 |
| Hours of sunshine a year on average for Europe’s ten sunniest major cities | |
(Source: https://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/Europe/sunniest-cities.php)
Living in such a place, it is only natural that outdoors is a very important part of everyday life. Unless it rains heavily or is very cold outside-which happens very rarely-people enjoy the sunny weather throughout the year and you will see them drinking their coffee or tea outside even during December or February. Sunshine combined with a fairly dry climate, makes atmosphere very pleasant for people who wish to be outside. One of the things I found very difficult to adjust to when lived in the States was the combo of humidity and hot temperatures. That thing was simply killing me. Anyway, since so much people enjoy the sunshine around here, it is only natural that cold coffees, milkshakes and ice creams have a very lead among beverages and sweets.
My son went to a friend of his over the weekend and as my husband and I stayed home alone, I thought that an adult version of a milkshake not only would cool us down, but also would entertain us as well. It was simply perfect! The combination of coconut and coffee is to die for.
- 250 gr. / 9 oz. coconut ice cream
- ½ cup prepared coffee
- 2-4 tbsp Kahlua (depending how strong you want it)
- 1 cup milk
- Whipped cream and cinnamon to garnish
- Put everything in your blender and pulse for a few times.
- Serve in glasses adding whipped cream and cinnamon on top.
- 250 γρ. παγωτό καρύδα
- ½ φλ. καφέ
- 2-4 κουταλιές της σούπας Kahlua (ανάλογα πόσο έντονο θέλετε το μιλκ σέικ)
- 1 φλ. γάλα
- Σαντιγύ και κανέλα για το γαρνίρισμα
- Βάλτε τα πάντα σε μπλέντερ σας και χτυπήστε διακεκομμένα μερικές φορές.
- Σερβίρετε σε ποτήρια προσθέτοντας σαντιγύ και κανέλα στην κορυφή.
