Buon Anno a tutti i lettori di ‘Un po’ di pepe’, vicini e lontani!  Spero che 2018 porta buona salute e gioia a voi e ai vostri cari. Happy New Year readers of ‘Un po’ di pepe’ near and far.  I hope 2018 brings you and your loved ones good health and joy!

WordPress sent me some stats which i find so interesting I need to share them. In 2017, Un po’ di pepe had almost 7,700 views from 101 different countries!  I wish I could visit even a few of them!  This post is also a milestone, as it is post number 100!  Last month I also reached 250 followers.  Number 250 is the lovely Cher who I met at my exhibit in Pietrasanta, Lucca. Cher, if you are reading this, I will be sending you a ‘prize’ soon!  Based on the number of views, the most posts of 2017 were:

#9 A post full of sundrenched photos from my daytrip to Trani this summer#8 At first, it seemed like this post didn’t get as much love as I thought it deserved, so I was felicissima that Hairstyling in Ancient Roma made the list! I am an archeology nerd, and obviously some of you are too!

#7 Torta Caprese all’Arancia the delicious flourless chocolate cake recipe I posted to celebrate receiving a Cannolo Award makes the list again this year

#6 My grand amico Peppe Zullo Il Cuoco Contadino will be thrilled that the post about him and his Azienda Agricola made the list!

#5 Pomodoro Day is a new post with links to 2 previous posts about the history of  pomodori and my family’s annual passata di pomodoro canning.  There are a lot of photos and they are very red!

#4 An introduction to my paese Benvenuti ad Orsara di Puglia made the list again this year.  Viva Orsara! I need to publish a photo essay of black and white photos taken this year.

#3 I am so happy to see Mercato Inspiration in the top 3! This post is a link to a photography blog post written by someone who purchased a small print from me. He writes about how meeting me and talking about art inspired him.  Molto cool!

#2 is my About me/Chi sono page but since it is not an actual post, the #2 spot goes to another old favourite.  Grano Arso is about a resurfaced gastronomic tradition in Puglia that honours the resilience of our contadini ancestors.  In September I read a piece about grano arso at the Association of Italian Canadian Writers Conference. It will be published in a special edition of the journal Italian Canadiana in 2018.

#1 by a long shot once again is Italiano per Ristoranti my handy Italian menu pronunciation guide.  This post is from 2014, and updated in 2016.  It is available from the post as a downloadable PDF.  I would like to expand on this post and make it into an ebook once I have time to figure out how to do that!

In October, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by fellow blogger Silvia Spatafora.  The link to her bilingual post is in L’Intervista con Silvia. Also molto cool!In 2017 I saw U2 perform live for the 7th time and I went to Italia twice!  If you read the posts In Partenza and Autunno in Italia, you know that the second time was not planned very far in advance.  Spontaneity is good!  I have several blog posts coming in 2018 related to the short trip! I also have a few book reviews to post.  My goals for 2018 are simple….less stress, more exercise, more art and writing!

I would love to hear which post was your favourite.  What would you like to read more of in Un po’ di pepe?  Looking forward to writing more cose interresanti /interesting stuff in 2018.

Vi auguro un 2018 piena di gioia e buona salute!  Ciao, Cristina