Through the lens of Berlin, the once divided city that now embodies the spirit of ‘looking beyond’, “Beyond Berlin” explores the ever-changing face of Europe. From here I venture east, beyond the Iron Curtain, to regions that are often overlooked but vital to Europe’s development. And south, to the heart of the Mediterranean.

I curate stories based on my experience of living and working across Europe. Sometimes they’re videos, books or dives into the origins of a piece of news. Sometimes they’re hidden gems in Central and Eastern Europe, documented through my photographic lens. Each post is a window into a different corner of the continent, but they also reveal something about me, proud and passionate European.

This is me.

If you were to draw a line between the places where I have spent most of my time, you would understand why I consider myself a child of the East-West divide and, on mother's side, a granddaughter of the "World of Yesterday".

I come from the north-east of Italy, an area with a rich and turbulent history, including the Isonzo Front in the First World War, the Nazi occupation zone in the Second World War and, finally, the Italian border with the Soviet bloc for the first eighteen years of my life. A few kilometres from my home was Gorizia, a city that, like Berlin or Görlitz, was and still is divided into two distinct cities, one Italian and the other Slovenian.

I was born in Udine, lived and studied in Milano and Vienna, spent several years in Salzburg and have been living in Berlin for a few years now, still spending some of my time in Vienna (one foot in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin and the other foot is in the 9th District of Vienna).

It is curious—and meaningful, if you believe coincidences do not exist—that the most important stations of my life (Udine, Salzburg, Berlin) all lie on the same longitude.

This 13° longitude sits close to the geographic center of Europe, if one considers Europe, as I do, to stretch from Lisbon to Luhansk.

• Berlin: 13°24′ East

• Salzburg: 13°03′ East

• Udine: 13°23′ East

I am doomed to identify myself as a Mitteleuropean. And I am happy to be such.

By day I work as a digital media executive (see: valentinagiannella.eu). In the evening I take care of this blog and podcast, which I fill with inspiration from what I read, watch and experience in my life.

Finally, this picture speaks more than a thousand words: this is the only flag that still moves me:

Digital rights.

Beyond Berlin is a blog, a photo story and a podcast.

I have taken almost all of the pictures featured and gladly make them available under a Creative Commons CC BY-ND licence: I allow others to re-use my photographs for any purpose, including commercial; however, they may not be shared with others in an adapted form and credit must be given to the author.

Where photos are not mine, they are either in the public domain or made available under a Creative Commons licence (e.g. Wikimedia, German Bundesarchiv) or come from social media accounts, with the source mentioned and linked.