noon
_ Ant . _ -- `` I hope so , sir , for I have about me many parcels of change . '' _ Winter 's Tale _ . Such was the state of things at Porto Ferrajo at noon , or about the hour when its inhabitants bethought them of their mid-day meal . With most the siesta followed , though the sea air , with its invigorating coolness , rendered that indulgence less necessary to these islanders than to most of their neighbors on the main . Then succeeded the reviving animation of the afternoon , and the return of the zephyr , or the western breeze . So regular , indeed , are these changes in the currents of the air during the summer months , that the mariner can rely with safety on meeting a light breeze from the southward throughout the morning , a calm at noon -- the siesta of the Mediterranean -- and the delightfully cool wind from the west , after three or four o'clock ; this last is again succeeded at night by a breeze directly from the land .