Buon Anno a tutti i lettori di ‘Un po’ di pepe’! Spero che quest’ anno porta salute e gioia a voi e ai vostri cari. Happy New Year readers of ‘Un po’ di pepe’. I hope this year brings you and your loved ones joy and good health!
2016 was a great blogging year and WordPress sent me some stats. Un po’ di pepe had almost 6,000 views from 94 different countries! I wish I could visit them all! Your favourite posts of 2016, based on the number of views were:
#7 My frequently requested recipe for Limoncello Cheesecake
#6 A visit to I Trulli di Alberobello
#5 Is my About me/Chi sono page, but since it is not an actual post, the #5 spot goes to one of my favourites, Benvenuti ad Orsara di Puglia, an introduction to my paese
#4 Grano Arso, about a resurfaced gastronomic tradition in Puglia that honours the resilience of our contadini ancestors
#3 Torta Caprese all’ Arancia, the delicious flourless chocolate cake recipe I posted to celebrate receiving a Cannolo Award
#2 Terremoto in Italia-How to help. I wrote this post in an effort to spread the word on how we could provide relief to victims of the earthquake in Central Italia in August. It was followed by a post on Spaghetti all’ Amatriciana
Vigili del Fuoco in Amatrice-Winnipeg Free Press
#1 Your favourite post of 2016 by far was Italiano per Ristoranti-How to Pronounce your Restaurant Menù my handy Italian pronunciation guide. This post is from June 2014, but this year, I updated it and finally made it available as a downloadable PDF. I would like to expand on this post and make it into an ebook, once I figure out how to do that! Italiano per Ristoranti is now your favourite blog post ever, surpassing the previous favourite, Passata di Pomodoro.
Bruschetta (broo.SKET.tah)
You may notice that only 2 of my top 7 posts were written this year! This is partly due to the way WordPress keeps stats. The newest post often gets counted as a ‘Home page’ view until the next post is published. I am not sure how much this would have changed the results.
I also published a few posts this year that are were among my favourites, but did not get a lot of love! Read about my potential new career as un falsaria d’arte, an art forger, in Madame Gautreau 
Several completely random connections that I have to Margherita di Savoia make for an interesting post
I thought wine was everyone’s favourite topic, but my 3 part series about the native grapes and wines of Puglia did not make the top 10. 
Vini di Puglia trilogy: Vini di Puglia, Aglianico to Zibbibo, and Il Tuccanese 
I’d love to hear which post was your favourite. What would you like to read more about? Looking forward to writing more cose interresanti /interesting stuff in 2017.
Vi auguro un 2017 piena di gioia e salute! Ciao, Cristina
Un po' di pepe 
I love all your posts. Happy new year to you! I hope all of your new year dreams come true. And I am hoping 2017 brings me back to Italia… fingers crossed! Buon anno nuovo…
Grazie Signora Martini. I will keep my fingers and toes crossed that you get to Italia in 2017! Happy blogging to both of us. Ciao, Cristina
Happy New Year Cristina! I have loved reading all your posts and my favourites are the recipes being the foodie I am. I also loved learning about the wines of puglia because I love vino!! Hope to see you in the new year, until then, ciao!
Pia! How wonderful to hear from you. I miss seeing you at work. Hope to see you soon. Ciao, Cristina
I only discovered your blog recently, but I really enjoy it. I hadn’t read your favorites, so I clicked on them and was quite impressed with your painting skills. I also thought that the random connections with someone famous was a good idea – I learned something about you together with the historical character in an interesting way.
I’d also like to say that your photos of food are outstanding.
But as for the most popular posts, it might have more to do with what comes up on a google search or what people are seeking out than the post itself. I’ve only been connected to wordpress for about 9 months but have had my blog for over 2 years. According to the wordpress statistics, the most viewed post by far is one I wrote a year and a half ago and people find it through a google search. It’s about the Calabrian mafia and surprisingly to me, people even search out the criminal organization on Christmas day. I just hope they come for that short explanatory blog post and stay to learn about all the good in the region.
On that note, Happy New Year!
Grazie Karen! it’s fun to imagine being an art forger, but I won’t quit my day job just yet! Other than the pronunciation guide, I don’t think my posts rank very highly in google searches since they really don’t get that many views. WordPress does have a strange way of keeping stats. Someone can scroll through all of the posts and count as 1 view or they can click each individual post and count as a lot of views. Per me…..non ha senso! I remember reading your Ndragheta post (although I meant to go back and watch the video and forgot) and it was very neutral and fact based. I guess it is better that people are reading facts about the region rather than making assumptions. i’ll bet a lot of those googlers reading your post are planning trips to Calabria and want to make sure it is safe!
One of the considerations for venue for the 2018 AICW (Association of Italian Canadian Writers) Conference is Calabria-I’ll have to keep you posted on this. Buon Anno, Cristina
Yes, that’s exactly what I was thinking when I read the post – you could be an art forger like in a spy movie!
And that was my intention of the ‘Ndrangheta post, to just lay out the basic facts and not to shrink away from the issue that there is a serious problem, but to also show that it’s a region filled with regular non-criminals. So I feel better reading your take on it as people looking to visit the region just wanting that sort of information. Much better than a bunch of people scanning police frequencies for the macabre.
Interesting about your AICW group conference. All the best!
Happy New Year Cristina 🙂 Auguri! I love all your posts, I learn something new every time I visit your blog. Congrats on the top 7. For me my most favorite was your post on the Trulli of Alberobello 😀 A personal favorite in Puglia too.
Grazie Ishita, I’m so glad to hear that. When I started my blog, the intention was for readers to learn something new, a new word in Italiano, or be inspired to pick up a paintbrush. I wrote something to that effect in my first post. I think I have to work on the 3rd one still! Alberobello is one of my favourites too. The sunshine on the day I took those photos was unbelievably bright. Here’s to more interesting blogging for both of us in 2017! Buon Anno, Cristina
Tanto mi piaciono i tuoi “posts.” Grazie! Ti auguro un felice anno nuovo!
Grazie Pamela! Buon Anno anche a te! One of the things I need to do this year is read your book! The only thing I’m not liking about blogging is that it doesn’t leave me much time to read anymore, so I’m going through my pile of books very slowly! Ti auguro anche a te un buonissimo anno nuovo piena di pace e salute, Cristina
Happy new year Cristina! Eloise
Sent from my iPhone
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Ciao Eloise. I hope you are having a great time in India! Buon Anno, Cristina
Buon Anno Cristina. Spero che quest’anno sia bellissomo. F
Grazie Francesca. Speriamo quest’anno abbiamo pace mondiale😎
Tantissimi auguri Cristina! E ancora complimenti per il tuo blog!
Grazie Silvia! Ricambia complimenti-mi impara sempre qualcosa quando leggo il tuo blog😎 Ciao, Cristina
Happy New Year Cristina! Thank you for an amazing year of great posts!! I look forward to 2017…