The Joy Of Blogging

Since the “big” weekend of people looking at my blog, I’ve been thinking a lot about blogging. Two years ago I probably hadn’t even read a blog. I think the first time I ever heard of them was when my husband handed me the Wall Street Journal with an article about popular blogs. He pointed to one on the list and said to me “This looks like something that you might be interested in”. It was Melinda Gallo’s Living in Florence and the rest is history. I immediately began reading her blog and became so engrossed that I read every post that she had written. If I couldn’t be living in Italy, at least I could live vicariously through someone who did!

In the beginning I just read Living in Florence. Not long after, my friend B. in England told me about a food blog-the wildly popular Chocolate & Zucchini. She had actually read about it in Bon Appetit and thought it would interest me, and she was right. I love to cook and am interested in everything to do with food and cooking and Clotilde at Chocolate & Zucchini does not disappoint.

I started reading just these two blogs-one for each of my obsessions-food and Italy-and from there a passion grew. J. had been after me for some time to start my own blog. I kept agreeing, but did nothing about it. Eventually I started writing and had about fifteen pieces written and that was it . I remember thinking at some point I really would start a blog, but wasn’t sure exactly how to do it. Time passed and the links on Living in Florence and Chocolate & Zucchini led me to more interesting reading.

Finally, alone with my limited computer skills I started this blog and have enjoyed every minute of it. I remember thinking “how will I find things to write about?” and almost one year, later I must say that I love the challenge of finding a topic and sitting down to put words on a page. I’ve always enjoyed writing and after doing a fair amount of “creative writing” in college, I have never really indulged my interest. Blogging has given me the opportunity to write on a daily basis and share my thoughts and interests with the those of you with similar interests. I look forward to hearing what others have to say and get inspiration from the rest of you. So to my fellow bloggers and all of you who make time to check out what I’ve written, I say “grazie”.