Looking Mediterranean?

I went to the local pub tonight before dinner, for a quick drink. I needed it after a long week. I used to go there pretty often when I was unemployed, I used to go there pretty often. It used to be my favourite pub in town, partially because it was just there. I was going semi-regularly, enough so people recognised me and I could chat with the punters. I am not a regular anymore and therefore not that many people recognise me. So I had my drink and got out in the garden to enjoy it, I said a few words to the people that was there, some I did recognise. Then one of the guys asked me: "So you are Spanish or Italian?" The regulars explained that I was neither.

It is not the first time people think I am from somewhere else. What susprised me was that the man presumed I was Italian not so much with what I said (barely more than "Good evening") but for what I looked like: he thought I looked dark. I guess that is a polite way of saying I look foreign. The funny thing is that I never thought I looked really foreign. I am a Northerner (being from the Northern emisphere and the North of Quebec), I am pale most of the year, I don't tan easily and this year I didn't notice getting much of a tan with the very timid Summer we had so far. I guess one only needs dark hair. Still, I wonder if it is simply because I look foreign.