Tag Archives: Festa della Liberazione

Bloghiversario #11

25 Friday Apr 2025

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Auguri a me! Today is another bloghiversario– blog anniversary.  I feel like we just celebrated 10 years of Un po’ di pepe! In numerology, Undici (oon•DEE•chee), 11 is a master number.  It is special because it repeats the #1. 11 is associated with creative energy, independent thinking, leadership and spiritual awareness. Good things for the coming year! I also love saying the word undici. Undicesimo Bloghiversario (11th bloghiversary) sounds even better.

As usual, I attempted to write more posts this past year.  It started out well, but for the last few months I have been recovering from a concussion.  I did not ski into a tree or anything molto dramatico, I just slipped on icy grass and fell backwards after throwing out the trash! In case you ever need to explain that in Italiano…. ‘Ho sbattuto la testa quando sono scivolata sull’erba ghiacciata, e ho un commozione cerebrale’. ‘Commozione cerebrale‘ makes it sound like there is a party happening in the brain, but that is the term for concussion. Do not ask me how many times I have been told ‘Meno male che hai la testa dura’ or ‘Menumale cà tien a capa tost!’ in the past few months. Those are ‘Good thing you have a hard head!‘ in Italiano and Dialetto. See what useful stuff you learn from this site!

I did finally publish posts on Artemisia Gentileschi, Panzerotti, Il Pumo Pugliese, I Cavalli di San Marco and 3 posts about Torino. The wine anthology I contributed to, ‘A Literary Harvest‘ is finally in print, and for my compleanno I published my piece in a bilingual post In Vino there are Memories /Nel Vino ci sono Ricordi.  Mamma loved it!  The anthology makes a great gift for the vino lover in your life-purchase information is   in both posts.

In July, I will be attending a family wedding in Roma!!! My recent posts have been Roma related- Giubileo 2025 about the Jubilee this year, Acqua Vergine and Fontana di Trevi. There are a few more coming.  Anyone else travelling to Roma this summer, make sure to read Beat the Heat-Surviving Summer in Roma.

I thought I would be celebrating follower #500, but seem to be stuck at 495-so hopefully soon.  If you change email addresses, don’t forget to resubscribe to continue receiving notifications of new posts.

April 25th 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 share my images and research and write about things that interest me!   You know….’Devo fare ricerca per il blog’ (I need to do research for my blog) is my reason to do all the things I want to do! If you have any suggestions for future posts or just want to say ‘ciao‘, leave me a comment.

To those who discovered the blog more recently or visit occasionally, Benvenuto!  Find out more by reading ‘Perché questo blog?/Why write a blog?’, ‘About me/Chi sono’ and my bilingual interview with Silvia L’Intervista con Silvia.

Grazie a tutti i lettori di ‘Un po’ di pepe’ per continuare a leggere e per avermi dato una scusa per usare le foto che ho scattato e per scrivere di cose che mi piacciono. Ormai posso usare la scusa ‘devo fare ricerca per il blog’ per tutto quello che voglio fare. Lasciatemi un messaggio se avete delle idee per un post o se semplicemente volete dire ‘ciao’.

Per chi ha scoperto il blog più di recente o lo visita occasionalmente, Benvenuto! Scopri di più leggendo ‘Perché questo blog?/Why write a blog?’, ‘About me/Chi sono’ e l’intervista bilingue L’Intervista con Silvia.Frecce Tricolori Festa della Liberazione 25 Aprile

Hopefully none of you will need to use your new commozione cerebrale terminology-but use undici whenever you can! Ciao, Cristina

Settebello-Bloghiversario #7

25 Sunday Apr 2021

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Today is another bloghiversario-a blog anniversary.  It is hard to believe it has already been 7 years since starting Un po’ di pepe.  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.

7 is a lucky number in many cultures.  Settebello, the sette denari (7 of coins) is the luckiest card in an Italian deck of cards.  Let’s hope that means it will be a lucky year! We could all use more settebello.Settebello

Last year, I did not write a bloghiversario post.  We had been in ‘pandemic mode’ for 6 weeks, and it is hard to believe that 1 year later, the world is still sottosopra…upside down, and I still feel like an extra in a low-budget science fiction movie where plague and pestilence run rampant.  

I started out this pandemic being crazy productive-increasing from 2 blog posts per month to 3, trying out all the recipes I could never find the time to get to, Zoom yoga 3-4 times a week and planned out  many art projects.  I lost steam at some point and now have trouble concentrating enough to write a shopping list or paint my nails.  I am now spending most of my time reading and growing seedlings, but thankfully I am still doing the Zoom yoga 3 times a week.

5 masks hanging on a clothesline

The loss of life, paralysis of the world economy, and mental health effects of this pandemic have been devastating.   Each of us copes differently with the confusion, fear and stress of quarantine, distancing, and finding distraction from all things Coronavirus.  Some of us are madly productive, and others slow right down.  I have yo-yo’d back and forth.  What I am trying to say is, as long as what you are doing helps with coping and local guidelines to help everyone stay safe are followed, it does not really matter. Just stay safe!

I decided to do my part for ‘the cause’ and got a temporary new job.  I will be doing some relief work with the COVID 19 Immunization clinics for Vancouver Coastal Health.  My training session was a few mornings ago and it was a happy place.  The 3 people I immunized were so excited, relieved, and ecstatic, it made my week!  

Personal Protective Equipment

Today is also La Festa della Liberazione d’Italia, the anniversary of the liberation of Italia from Fascist occupation in 1945.  Viva la libertà. Since it is relevant today, I would like to share this 1955ish quote by Piero Calamandrei, an author and protagonist of the Resistenza:

La liberta è come l’aria.  Ci si accorge di quanto vale quando inizia a mancare. /Freedom is like air.  We only realize how much it is worth when it is lacking.

SettebelloGrazie 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. Here is a link to my first post Perché questo blog?/Why write a blog?

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

Forza! Continue to stay safe everyone, and hang in there.  Un abbraccio, Cristina

La Festa della Liberazione

25 Saturday Apr 2020

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Today is la Festa della Liberazione d’Italia, the anniversary of the liberation of Italia from Fascist occupation in 1945, and a day to honour those who served in the Italian Resistance. That makes today the 75th anniversary of liberazione.  April 25th has been an Italian national holiday since 1946- Viva la libertà!

There are usually rallies organized all over the country by ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiana d’Italia).  This year the celebration is bittersweet, there not being much liberazione at the moment with everyone in isolation.

There will be balcony celebrating all over the country, including singing Bella Ciao.  This was originally a protest song of the late 19th Century, for women working in the rice fields in Northern Italia, then adapted as an antifascist song of the resistance.  Please listen to this Facebook link to a video of a beautiful version sung by a few of my talented young paesani in Orsara di Puglia! Frecce Tricolori Festa della Liberazione 25 Aprile

Le Frecce Tricolori of the Italian air force also flew the colours of the Italian flag over Roma this morning.

Today is also Un po di pepe‘s 6th bloghiversario / blog anniversary.  I usually write about the past year and what I would like to write for the next one.  This year, I would just like to share a 1955ish quote by Piero Calamandrei, an author and protagonist of the Resistenza:

La liberta è come l’aria.  Ci si accorge di quanto vale quando inizia a mancare. /Freedom is like air.  We only realize how much it is worth when it is lacking.

Continue to stay safe everyone, and hang in there.  Forza! Ce la faremo!  Un abbraccio, Cristina