There’s a meme doing the rounds at the moment, thanks to Tripbase – you may well have seen versions of it on other blogs. In a nutshell, bloggers are nominated to talk about 7 of their posts, and then to nominate 5 other bloggers to do the same. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading other people’s archive posts, so when the lovely Koan Girl at A Totally Impractical Guide to Shanghai nominated me to take part, I started rifling through my archives, and here follow the results. I hope you enjoy them.

1. My most beautiful post

A lot of other people have answered this question with posts containing amazing photography and images. Me, I’m no great shakes as a photographer. I enjoy it, but words are more my thing. Beauty is therefore not so much in the eye as the *mind* of the beholder here. A picture paints a thousand words, they say. Well, that probably explains why I write long posts. I’ve chosen this one for the images that it conjures of a moment of peace and happiness. Much though humans might try to wreck the landscape around them, nature always seems to win out in the end.
Country Roads, Take Me Home

2. My most popular post

There are two contenders for this title. First, the post that has garnered the most hits. It’s an observational post about a day on the beach and was featured in Michelle at Bleeding Espresso’s Gita Italiana last year, at which point my viewing stats went crazy. Thanks, Michelle!
When I Was Two, I Was Nearly New

The second post is the one that has gained the most comments. This, again, is thanks to a little help from other people; this time, Lara and Terence at Gran Tourismo. Last year they were running monthly competitions, themed differently for each month, and I entered this post into one of them, to explain just some of the many reasons why I’ve fallen in love with train travel here in Italy.
Daydream in Blue

3. My most controversial post

I’m not usually one for stirring up controversy. This blog is far more observational than confrontational, so this was a difficult category to fill. However, I finally went for one in which I have a bit of a bitch about how rubbish the food is in Paris. I then go and ruin my stance by waxing lyrical about a fabulous bistro that I found there. Ha.
Bon Appétit

4. My most helpful post

Again, this was a difficult category to fill. This is a personal blog, and I don’t generally write in order to be helpful. However, I did remember this one about speed dating, which does offer advice of a sort. Not the kind of advice that you should take all that seriously, granted, but I DO THESE THINGS SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO, OKAY?!

5. A post whose success surprised me

This post was written at a time when I was feeling quite bitter about life and love here in Calabria and was rather different from my usual way of writing. The vignette style and the content seemed to hit a nerve with a few people, however, and I got lots of comments both on the blog and on my Facebook page.
Love in the South of Calabria

6. A post that didn’t get the attention it deserved

This is a double whammy. I visited Florence over Easter in 2010 and wrote a pair of posts about the experience which didn’t seem to get much interest, which disappointed me, given how much there is crammed into them. I talk about architecture and monuments and train travel and food and and and – oh, just read them, OK? G’wan – you know you want to …
Night Train to Florence
Cake and Steak

7. The post that I am most proud of

This is a very recent one, and was one that I wrote consciously trying to take myself out of the equation. Observation is what I love to do, but far too often when I then write about it I find that it’s become all about ME ME ME. This post, on the other hand, is all about others and I love it for that.
Pet Sounds

So now to the nominations. I’m pretty sure none of you have done this already, but if you have then I apologise – it’s getting hard to keep track of who has and who hasn’t.
Torre at The Fearful Adventurer
Jaxies at I Am a Feeder
Roxanne at Stories of Conflict and Love
Carrie at Some Birds are Like That
Angela at Chasing the Unexpected

Photo credits:

Kate Bailward
Athena_Vina on Flickr
Tiemen Rapati on Flickr
Malingering on Flickr