Category Archives: Blogging

Bloghiversario & Book Review

25 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Blogging, Inspiration, Libri

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Caspita, il tempo vola! Non ci credo che oggi è bloghiversario numero 4 per Un po’ di pepe!  How time flies. I can’t believe it is already 4 years since publishing my first post on Un po’ di pepe.

This was another exciting blogging year.  I wish I could post more often, but until I can manage to get 27 hours out of a day, twice a month will continue to be the average. Here are some highlights of the year…

  • Blog love!  In June I met photographer Flynn at my mercato bancarella. He bought a tiny print and wrote a very nice and well-timed post on his blog about inspiration and art.
  • I was interviewed by Silvia for her blog in October.  It was amazing that someone actually wanted to interview me.  Now I actually have the ability to quote myself-as I did in my last post, and will continue to do so as often as I can! Just because I can.  Link to the bilingual post here.
  • In February, honorary Calabrese Karen of the blog and book Calabria: The Other Italy nominated me for the Unique Blogger Award.  This is a pay-it-forward, share-the-love blog vehicle.  Nominees answer a set of questions, then nominate others. I have not found the time to respond yet, but Karen did say there was no pressure, no time limit.
  • To celebrate follower#250, Mlle Cher was sent one of my ‘Espresso per Uno’ linocut prints!  Hopefully it arrived before she left NY for Pietrasanta.
  • I managed to squeeze in a spontaneous ‘extra’ trip to Italia in November to attend an art retreat and Fucacoste e Cocce Priatorje!
  • Many of you enjoyed my attempt at contemporary art criticism in La Grande Cacata.  The title says it all!
  • I joined the #DolceVitaBloggers linkup for my last post.  The group posts on a selected topic from the 7th to the 14th of every month.  I hope to participate again!
  • You may have noticed those pesky ads for things like toenail fungus removal have disappeared from the bottom of the posts!  Yipee!  I upgraded my wordpress plan.  Now I can use videos, once I learn how to load them.
  • My pronunciation guide Italiano per Ristoranti continues to be the most viewed post.  I am still planning to turn the downloadable PDF into an e-book once I figure out how to do that. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

    Bruschetta (broo.SKET.tah)

Today is also La Festa della Liberazione d’Italia, the anniversary of the liberation of Italia from Fascist occupation in 1945.  Viva la libertà!  Last year, I said I was going to write about Le Donne Partigiane-women who were partisans in the Italian Resistance. Well… that post is not written yet, so instead, I will include a book review of a book with una donna partigiana as the main character.

Bridge of Sighs and Dreams is written by fellow blogger Pamela Allegretto.  I loved it and here is my Goodreads/Amazon 5/5 star review:

 

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 a tutti per leggere e darmi una scusa per scrivere di cose che mi piacciono.  Lasciami un messaggio se hai un idee per un post o se vuoi dice ‘ciao’.  Un abbraccio, Cristina

Buon Anno 2018

01 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in Blogging, Inspiration

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Topnine2017a

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!

Peppe Zullo nel vigneto. Photo Nicola Tramonte

#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!

Bruschetta (broo.SKET.tah)

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

L’Intervista con Silvia

25 Wednesday Oct 2017

Posted by in Bilingual posts, Blogging, Inspiration, Italian language

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One of the greatest things about blogging is virtual ‘meeting’ and collaboration with other bloggers.  Recently, I received a very nice email from fellow blogger Silvia Spatafora, of Il Blog di Silvia Spatafora:

‘Trovo molto interessante la tua storia, il fatto che tu sia nata in Italia ma che ti sia trasferita da piccola in Canada e, soprattutto, la tua passione per l’Italia! Il tuo blog è davvero interessante. Adoro che scrivi un po’ in inglese e un po’ in italiano e sarei curiosa di scoprire di più su di te, il tuo blog e il modo in cui mantieni allenato il tuo italiano. Per questo avevo pensato che sarebbe carino farti un’intervista scritta da pubblicare sul mio blog.’

In inglese:  ‘I find your story very interesting; the fact that you were born in Italia but moved to Canada at a young age, and mostly your passion for Italia.  Your blog is really interesting.  I adore that you write a bit in English and a bit in Italian and I would be curious to discover more about you, your blog and the way you keep up your Italian.  For this reason, I thought it would be cute to do an written interview with you to publish on my blog.’

Silvia was born and went to university in Palermo, and has been living in Madrid since 2010.  Silvia is passionate about teaching Italian! She teaches Italiano per Stranieri/  Italian for Foreigners at several schools in Madrid, as well as privately and also does translation.   She published my intervista on her blog today in both Italiano and inglese.  Read it on Silvia’s blog here. 

Grazie Silvia!

 

Chiuso per Ferie

25 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Blogging, Italian life, Orsara di Puglia

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Chiuso per ferie = closed for holidays.  Chiuso per ferie signs can be seen posted all over Italia in summer, especially in the weeks before and after Ferragosto, the 15th of August. I was not organized to post-date anything and was hoping I could publish a few posts with only my iPad and wifi, but i give up. Un po’ di pepe is now chiuso per ferie until mid August!

I have a chiavetta internet, which until this year, I used at home with a small laptop.  I would load $ on it and use it for 1 month a year.  The technology is old and it was not a great connection anyways, making it more frustrating than useful.  I ended up wasting a lot of time, so this year, I decided to scrap it and just make do with wifi available at 3 bars in town.

Not so easy!  My wifi access usually consists of a few stolen minutes here and there. When I sit at the bar with my espressino, inevitably, someone sees me sitting there and comes over to chat, which is awesome, and much more sociable than staring at a screen by myself.  In the evening, I am usually at one of the bars, but with family or friends, so anything longer than a quick Instagram post is socially unacceptable.

One of the bars is at a crossroads, very close to my casa.  I have to walk past it to get to most of the places I need to go,  When I walk past, I walk really slowly and then I hear my pocket go ‘ding ding ding’ as all of my WhatsApp messages come in!  I read them later, and respond when in wifi again.  

I have been too busy socializing, taking photos and enjoying the fresh air in Orsara di Puglia to have time to keep up with reading blog posts, let alone deal with the technical issues of posting any.  I have been posting frequently to Instagram and a bit on Facebook.  If you want to see what I have been up to, check out my Instagram feed on the sidebar to the right.  For now, consider me chiuso per ferie! Ciao da Orsara, Cristina

Terzo Bloghiversario!

25 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Blogging

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Caspita! Il tempo vola. Non ci credo che oggi Un po’ di pepe fa 3 anni!  How time flies. I can’t believe it is already 3 years since publishing my first post on Un po’ di pepe, Perche Questo Blog?/Why Write a Blog? I do not know how I missed noticing this before, but today is also La Festa della Liberazione d’Italia, the anniversary of the liberation of Italia from Fascist occupation in 1945.  Viva la libertà!  Next year I will write a post about Le Donne Partigiane-women who were partisans in the Italian Resistance.

I planned to celebrate by having a contest or giving away a print for Un po’ di pepe’s 200th follower, but I missed that too!  Mannaggia! I will have to organize something for the 250th follower or the 100th post.  This one is #85, so I do not need to rush.

This was another exciting blogging year.  I wish I had time to post more often, but twice a month will continue to be the average.  This year Un po’ di pepe finally got a Facebook page-the link is in the sidebar. I still prefer Instagram!  My pronunciation guide Italiano per Ristoranti continues to be the most viewed post and a popular download.  I have been doing research on how to turn it into an e-book.

Bruschetta (broo.SKET.tah)

I was nominated for a Liebster Award by Malberock. I love their description of my blog: ‘l’identità italiana in Canada spiegata ai canadesi, ma anche a noi italiani’!  This could be my new tagline-grazie Malberock! The Liebster is a virtual award designed to increase the visibility of blogs that have less than 200 followers.  Now that I am up to 211, I no longer qualify!

I have more posts about interesting stuff planned for the coming year, including more parole piacevoli, my experiences with dialetti and making bread starter.  My next post will feature my amico, Peppe Zullo! While I am learning how to publish an e-book, I also plan to figure out how to post bits of my old home movies from our family trips to Italia.  In June and August I will have a bancarella at the Italian Market, selling cards, etchings and other things I like to make.  I also want to finally open an Etsy store, but I need to make inventory first.

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.  I am going to sign off with a link to my second post, which needs some love-Il Gigante~Michelangelo’s David. Grazie a tutti per leggere e darmi una scusa per scrivere di cose che mi piacciono.  Lasciami un messaggio se hai un idee per un post o se vuoi dice ‘ciao’.  Un abbraccio, Cristina

Buon Anno 2017

01 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by in Blogging

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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 CheesecakeLimoncellocheesecake5#6 A visit to I Trulli di AlberobelloAlberobellobiancheria#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 paeseItalia2013orsaravista1blog

#4 Grano Arso, about a resurfaced gastronomic tradition in Puglia that honours the resilience of our contadini ancestorsfarinagranoarsoorecchiette

#3 Torta Caprese all’ Arancia, the delicious flourless chocolate cake recipe I posted to celebrate receiving a Cannolo AwardTortacaprese2

#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

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)

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 Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast. After John Singer Sargent. Cristina Pepe 2016Several completely random connections that I have to Margherita di Savoia make for an interesting postMargheritadisavoia2014bI 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. Uvadipuglia Vini di Puglia trilogy:  Vini di Puglia, Aglianico to Zibbibo, and Il Tuccanese CristinaPianoParadiso

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

Secondo Bloghiversario!

25 Monday Apr 2016

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AuguriToday is Un po’ di pepe’s secondo bloghiversario-2nd anniversary of blogging!  I can’t believe 2 years has already gone by since I hit the big blue PUBLISH button for the first time.

In honour of the bloghiversario, last week I finally made my most viewed post June 2014’s ‘Italiano per Ristoranti~How to pronounce your menù’ into a PDF that is downloadable from the blog. It only took 22 months to get it done, but as my Mamma says ‘Meglio tardi che mai’-better late than never! Click on the link in red and the PDF is available at the end of the post. I’m thinking of adding more content and turning this into an ebook available on Amazon.  Hopefully it won’t take me another 22 months to do that! Another exciting thing that happened in year 2 of blogging was receiving a Cannolo Award.

One more thing I will do in honour of the bloghiversario is post a link to my first real post ‘Il Gigante~Michelangelo’s David’. Davide

Stay tuned for more ‘cose interessanti’- interesting stuff in year 3 including a series on wines of Puglia.  In August I will be reading at the AICW (Association of Italian Canadian Writers) Conference in Padula and blogging from there.   Please leave a comment if there is something you’d like to read more about.  Grazie a tutti i miei lettori, Cristina

Buon Anno 2016

31 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in Blogging

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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.CappellaMadonnadiVitaleta

#4 Grano Arso, about a resurfaced gastronomic tradition in Puglia that demonstrates the resilience of our contadini ancestors.

farinagranoarsoorecchiette

#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

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)

Bruschetta (broo.SKET.tah)

and #1 Torta Caprese all’ Arancia, the delicious flourless chocolate cake recipe I posted to celebrate my Cannolo award!Tortacaprese2

In case you were wondering, my all-time most-viewed post is still Passata di Pomodoro!  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.Materasassibn

#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

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
Il Trabucco Punta Lunga Mattina

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

Perché questo blog? / Why write a blog?

25 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by in Bilingual posts, Blogging, Culture, Inspiration

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Sono contenta che hai trovato il mio blog/ I’m glad you found my blog. Why did I decide to start writing a blog? I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. The biggest reason is creative inspiration and stimulation. I don’t remember when I didn’t have a passion for words and images. I could always be found with my nose in a book, reading, writing, or sketching. This is a place I can combine all of my interests; writing, art, photography, travel, and exploring Italian culture. I can share my photos, images, and all of the half-drafted ideas I have lying around. Whenever I think of something interesting, I scribble notes down on scraps of paper… post-it notes… menus….the computer, and now even on my phone, because ‘one day’ I’ll write an article about it. Well, ‘one day’ isn’t happening. I also have several emails I keep sending over and over to friends who are planning travel to Italy, and this is a better place to share that information. I have a strong belief in maintaining cultural ties, and I travel to Italy every year. I hope to encourage the same in other ‘italocanadesi’ who read my blog and to connect with others who have a passion for art, Italy,and anything else I think is interesting. I hope you learn something new every time you visit, whether it’s about a new place you’d like to visit, discovering a new artwork, learning a few new words in Italian, or maybe you’ll even be inspired to pick up a brush and starting painting yourself! I might write a few of my posts in Italian, but for now, it will be just little snippets. I’ll apologize in advance for any grammatical errors I might make! I don’t like to use online translating because it makes more mistakes than I do! Let me know if you have any suggestions for new posts. You can read more in ‘About me/Chi sono’  and L’Intervista con Silvia. The name ‘Un po’ di pepe’ means ‘a bit of pepper’….because everything can use some spicing up! Iniziamo l’avventura! / Let’s start the adventure!

In Italiano:
Sono contenta che hai trovato il mio blog! Perché ho iniziato a scrivere un blog? Ho vari motivi. È da tanto tempo che ci sto pensando. Mi piace scrivere, e questo è un posto dove posso scrivere di tutte le cose che mi piacciono. Posso usare tutte quelle cose scritta a metà e poi abbandonate, scritte o schizzate su un pezzetto di carta strappata…su un menù….sul computer, e adesso anche sul telefono, perché ‘un giorno’, queste mi serviranno per scrivere un articolo interessante. Nel frattempo, questo ‘un giorno’ sembra non arrivare mai!
Credo molto nel significato di mantenere legami con le miei radici italiane, e vado in Italia tutti gli anni. Spero con il mio blog di incoraggiare lo stesso interesse in altri italocanadesi. Scriveró di tutto quello che mi piace, soprattutto di arte e cultura italiana. Spero che ogni volta che lo visitarete, vi possiate imparare una cosa nuova…che si tratti di scoprire un’opera d’arte nuova, un posto da visitare, di imparare qualche parola nuova in italiano (o per quelli che parlano già l’italiano, di imparare qualche nuova parola in inglese!) o di essere ispirati a prendere un pennello in mano e cominciare un’opera d’arte tutta vostra! Forse scriveró anche delle volte in Italiano, ma per ora saranno piccolo frammenti. Fatemi sapere se avete qualche suggerimento per nuovi post. Chiedo scusa in anticipo per i miei eventuali errori grammaticali! Potete leggere un po’di più in ‘About me/ Chi sono’  o in L’Intervista con Silvia.

Ponte Vecchio, Firenze. Photo Shannon Milar

Ponte Vecchio, Firenze. Photo Shannon Milar