On the occasion of the narrative of the English novelist J.G Ballard, ‘’The largest theme park in the world’’, where he describes the Mediterranean Sea as a linear city, issues of habitation and urbanization along the coastline are being considered. The Mediterranean landscape is heterogeneous, full of differences and conflicts but at the same time is characterized by unity, multiculturalism, exchange of ideas and liveliness. It is a landscape that is in a process of continuous transformations, always something happens «here». To a great extent, transformations are due to tourism. The development of the phenomenon of tourism has led to a population movement of from the hinterland to the coastlines. The ways that this spatial change took place and the new spatial models of this procedure are under investigation in order to answer if the urbanization in the Mediterranean has in reality a linear character.

The research-voyage to the Mediterranean city is organized into four thematic units. In the first chapter an effort to understand and read the today’s Mediterranean landscape is made through the natural traits, the social events and the spatial conditions. Nature, immigration and tourism are the main topics. The same strategy will be implemented in the fourth chapter as well, with special references to the Greek landscape, as an example of a country which has been rebuilt because of the tourism. The second and the third chapters are about the travelling experience. Initially, a retrospective of the traveler's evolution takes place in order to help man understand the today’s models and then, the reasons that prompt him to visit it and the effects of this movement in the space.

The Mediterranean tries to create a fake, appealing image of its landscape in order to manage to become a marketable product. The image lies behind the notion of the mediterranism, the special pulse of the countries of the Mediterranean Sea. Today, its landscape is in a crisis because of the intensive construction, the environmental degradation and the social and demographic pressures. The concern is about how there can be a more sustainable development. The return from the voyage reveals how important it is first and foremost to understand the simplicity of the landscape and then to realize that its landscape cannot be consumed by everyone. It is necessary to reinvent the subject who will be able to appreciate it.