I am very excited to announce that Inspired By Venice has been nominated for a Blogger Recognition Award! It is very special to share my stories, my thoughts, my photos and wanderings, as well as my books with you, on this site. To know that readers and fellow bloggers are enjoying inspiredbyvenice.org warms my heart and puts a smile on my face! Thank you!

First, I’d like to especially thank A Pinch Of Sea Salt for the nomination! A Pinch of Sea Salt is a fabulous food blog from which I sincerely enjoy the recipes, stories and excellent photography! Blogs like it are a special treat, so positive and so appreciated! Thank you!!

A part of accepting this award is to share a little about Inspired By Venice! How did this blog start? With the publication of my book Venice. Venice was a six year project for me and is one of the loves of my life, as is the city of Venice, Italy. In starting this blog, I wanted a place to share not only this book and my others, but also a great many things that inspire me: culture, travel, history, costuming, nature, food, and those happy moments in life that remind me of how beautiful the world is!

What advice do I have for new bloggers? Be yourself and write about what you love. After starting Inspired By Venice, I instantly worried that I wouldn’t have enough to write about, but I soon realized that inspiration comes from everywhere and something wonderful will always present itself, a great many things that you’d like to share with readers.

Further, my goal was to inspire, inform and uplift. That doesn’t mean that I think bloggers must avoid difficult topics, but that when they write about them, it should remind others that they are not alone, help readers to keep their chins up, and even encourage one another to be more mindful and good to others (and to ourselves, our animal friends and our environment). The world will never be perfect, but we can all make it better. Blogs are a beautiful forum for that!

With the Blogger Recognition Award comes a special privilege…I get to nominate 15 blogs that are an inspiration to me! In no particular order, the Blogger Recognition Awards go to…

*La Venessiana Blog

*Iroha Press

*Girl In Florence

*Deliciously Yum

*For Food’s Sake

*Olive Sundays

*Travels Food

*Michael Philip Atkins Travels

*Meandering with Misha

*The Merry Thought

*Italian Home Kitchen

*Passports and Pigtails

*Once Upon A Time In Italy

*Eating Clouds In Italy

*Tesserology

To learn more about the Blogger Recognition Award, click here! Thank you all for reading Inspired By Venice, and thank you to all those blogs that inspire us every day!