Buon Anno a tutti i miei lettori-Happy New Year to all of my readers! 2015 has been a great blogging year and WordPress has sent me some stats. Un po’ di pepe had 5,000 views from 80 countries! Wow, if only i could visit a quarter of them! My top 5 posts of 2015, based on the number of views were:
#5 Val d’Orcia Daytrip, about a wonderful unplanned day in Toscana with my amica Shannon and a rental car.
#4 Grano Arso, about a resurfaced gastronomic tradition in Puglia that demonstrates the resilience of our contadini ancestors.
#3 Fucacoste e Cocce Priatorje, about the unique festa in Orsara di Puglia on November 1st. This was actually reposted from Nov 1, 2014. One day I hope to be there for this festa-but I’ll have to buy a space heater first!
Piazza San Pietro. Photo courtesy of International Photo Correspondent Donato Narducci
#2 Italiano per Ristoranti-How to Pronounce your Menù, my handy Italian pronunciation guide. This post is from June 2014. Wordpress tells me that this means my writing has staying power and I should write more on this topic! I’ll see what i can do. I still have to make it available as a downloadable PDF. Oops!
Bruschetta (broo.SKET.tah)
and #1 Torta Caprese all’ Arancia, the delicious flourless chocolate cake recipe I posted to celebrate my Cannolo award!
In case you were wondering, my all-time most-viewed post is still Passata di Pomodoro! 
I also wrote a few post this year that I think are were among the best, but were hardly viewed by anyone! Here are 3 posts needing some love:
#1 I Sassi di Matera about my recent visit to the ancient city in Basilicata. The place has a mystical, otherworldly feel about it and a fascinating history.
#2 Centrale Montemartini in Roma, one of my favourite Museums. What do you expect from an archeology nerd?
Amazon warrior in front of a diesel engine
#3 I Trabucchi del Gargano about the fascinating fishing contraptions found along the Adriatic Coast, specifically the Northern coast of Puglia
Let me know which was your favourite! Looking forward to writing more posts in 2016.
Vi auguro un nuovo anno piena di gioia e salute! Ciao, Cristina
Buon Anno Cristina. I look forward to more of your stories this year. Wishing you all the very best for 2016 Lyn
Grazie Lyn! It was fun meeting you in Brisbane this year!
Hi Cristina! Buon anno anche a te!!!!! Looking forward to 2016.
Grazie Diana. Si, I think 2016 is going to be a good year!
Felice anno nuovo Cristina!
Grazie Susan. Sarà un anno meraviglioso 2016!
I loved your Melagrana post. And also the one about Matera, look forward to reading more of your posts this year, Jenny
Grazie Jenny. I may need to have a melagrana garage sale! Glad you liked Matera-I’ll be posting a few more. Buon Anno, Cristina
Hey, congrats on your roaring success! 80 countries? 5000 views??? That is wonderful! No surprise though – your blog is great!
Picking a favorite is really hard – I enjoyed them all. The Sassi de Matera I think was my favorite historical one. I simply cannot pick among the food ones (I LOVED THEM ALL) but there was something special about the tomato sauce one because I loved how your family all worked together to make the sauce (from tomatoes from your own garden!). I look forward to 2016, in which I know you will continue to post wonderful things about a wonderful country. Thanks Cristina! Keep up the great work! 🙂
Grazie Laura! The blog wouldn’t be very fulfilling without loyal enthusiastic readers like you❤️