Caspita, il tempo volo!  Oggi Un po’ di pepe compie 5 anni/Today Un po’ di pepe turns 5! It is hard to believe it has already been 5 years since starting this blog.  Where did the time go?  If feels like just yesterday I had trouble coming up with a blog name. This has been an amazing, rewarding experience and I have ‘met’ so many virtual friends and even reconnected with old ones.

There have been some big life changes recently.  The biggest one is that I left my permanent job and switched to working freelance.  Now I can say I am una libera professionista.  That has a nice ring to it.  I will be working less and my schedule will be much more flexible. No longer will I have to request time off one year in advance!  In theory, this means more time for writing and making art.  So far, all I have done is housecleaning, gardenwork and powerwashing, but those need to be done too!

Posts have increased from an average of 2 per month to 3 lately.  Hopefully this will continue!  A change in layout and a gallery page will be coming soon. Hopefully you are Caravaggio fans, because I wrote 4 posts recently and there will be more! A few blog collaborations are in the works too.

In other news… I will be going on a short trip to Firenze with my nipotina soon.  We will do a lot of research for future posts. My first non work related publication came out recently.  Read about it here.  There are 2 more publications coming out soon; a contribution to the Canadian Wine Anthology and a short story in the AICW Padula 2016 Conference Anthology.

In the last year, I have participated in 2 blogging linkup groups. ‘In my kitchen’ (IMK) hosted by Sherry posted in September and April.  My next one will be from my Pugliese kitchen this summer.  7 post were linked to the monthly ‘Dolce Vita Bloggers’  (DVB) group hosted by Jasmine, Kelly and Kristie .  These have been some of my most viewed posts, especially Aria Pericolosa.  In May, the DVB theme is ‘Favourite region of Italy’. Although I have been to 14 out of the 20 regions it should not be too difficult to guess which one I will write about!

This month’s DVB theme is ‘Favourite season in Italy’ but the timing was too close to Easter and this bloghiversary post for me to participate.  I definitely have a favourite season, and will write about it in the future.  A question I am often asked is ‘When is the best time to visit Italia?’.  Well, the answer is …anytime you are able to go!  There is no time that is not good to visit, you just need to know that each season will give a very different travel experience and even a different selection of food.  It’s all good!

Today is also La Festa della Liberazione d’Italia, the anniversary of the liberation of Italia from Fascist occupation in 1945.  It has been a national holiday since 1946.  Viva la libertà!

Grazie to all of you for taking the time to read, comment, send messages and especially for giving me an excuse to research and write about things that interest me!  If you have any suggestions for posts or just want to say ‘ciao‘, leave me a comment.

Grazie mille a tutti i lettori di ‘Un po’ di pepe’ per leggere e darmi una scusa per scrivere di cose che mi piacciono.  Lasciami un messaggio se hai un idea per un post o semplicemente per dire ‘ciao’.  Un abbraccio, Cristina