Welcome to More Than Just Views!
A creative corner for culturally curious wanderers filled with travel stories and essays on culture, art, books and life abroad.
Hello, ciao, bonjour, oi and welcome to More Than Just Views!
Thank you so much for signing up and reading my newsletter. With all the beautiful words to read out there in the world, I truly appreciate you choosing to spend some time with mine.
I’m Veronica Ferrari, an Italian writer, traveller, bookworm and art lover living in Paris 🇫🇷, with previous life chapters in Genova, Pavia 🇮🇹, London 🇬🇧 and Rio de Janeiro 🇧🇷.
More Than Just Views is a newsletter and creative corner for culturally curious wanderers filled with travel stories and musings on culture, art, books and life abroad. With my writing, I hope to show you the stories beyond the landscapes we see on our travels, beyond the words of a book we love, beyond the brushstrokes of a painting we admire…there are always More Than Just Views.
What is More Than Just Views about?
Imagine you are wandering the streets of your favourite city in the world and peeking through the windows of local independent shops. You are on your way to a cosy café around the corner where we will meet for a cup of coffee and a treat. We’ll chat about the latest book we read or leaf through a magazine we found on the table before heading out to visit a new exhibition or attend a talk by one of our favourite creatives.
If this sounds like your sort of day out, you have come to the right place!
After years of reading and writing online for work and for fun, I came up with the name More Than Just Views in 2018, hoping to start a travel blog that never was, and then resumed it again in 2021 with the idea of offering editorial support and book coaching for writers while studying on my Publishing postgraduate course. But as it turns out, I would like to be the one doing the writing for now. I always seem to have big creative energy on my birthday, maybe as a final stone to throw in the pond ahead of a new year of life, so after months of talking myself in and out of writing projects, here, throwing a new stone.
A little bit about me…
I’m a multi-hyphenate/multi-curious who has learned the existence and meaning of this word only after leaving my hometown in Italy, the land of the mythical “job for life”. I became an expat in 2015 when I moved to London to study journalism and have since lived in London, Rio de Janeiro and now Paris. I also spent a year as a digital nomad between the last two, travelling across Europe with my husband to choose a new place to call home. There will definitely be plenty of stories from the road coming soon.
You can usually find me in a bookshop, an art gallery or at the bakery choosing a pain au chocolat. Curiosity is my number one personal trait followed by “comes up with a million new business ideas a day”. I love learning and I’m always browsing online courses and videos on art, history and anything literature. During the pandemic, I went “back to school” part-time and completed a Publishing Postgraduate Diploma from Oxford Brookes University where I loved learning more in-depth about all aspects of the publishing world.
By day, I work part-time as Head of Insight at an intelligence and reputation risk agency, with wonderful colleagues who inspire me and teach me so much every day, from how to improve my writing to how to balance business and family. I also freelance as a journalist, copywriter, social media analyst, and publishing consultant…as I said…multi-hyphenate!
Apart from my love for writing and reading, for years, I have been sending friends and family tips on anything from airport tips and favourite bakeries in a certain city, to survival guides on moving abroad. They have all been pushing me to start a newsletter about all this, so here we are!
The most flattering and hilarious response to one of my lists of suggestions I received was from my wonderful friend and life coach Emma:
“Vero, you are literally the internet! But curated and beautiful!”
Emma Lavelle (The (F)Alchemist)
Here is what you will get if you subscribe to More Than Just Views:
Free subscribers
Inspiration for culturally curious wanderers from an Italian writer living in Paris, via London and Rio de Janeiro
Views from the Café - Musings on brewing creativity in a second (or third) language, culture and life abroad
Sunday’s Trouvailles – Like browsing your favourite brocante and Sunday market, but online! I will share the best of my cultural findings from the week and the archives, aka my piles of saved links and paper treasures stashed in boxes.
Paid subscribers
My dream is to turn this corner of the web into a community of creatives living across places and creating in a second language while building a life and home in a new country.
As usual, I’m bursting with ideas for what is to come, but to make this project bloom, I want to be able to give it love and especially time from the beginning. If you would like to join me and support my work, you can become a paid subscriber at any moment. For 5 EUR/GBP 4 a month (or 50 EUR/42 GBP a year) you can have access to my free writing plus:
Views from the Road - Stories from my years of travelling, including my experience as a digital nomad across Europe.
Views from the Camera Roll - Curated finds from my wanderings around the world.
Views from the Reading Nook - Book reviews and literary chats.
Views from the Gallery - Reviews of art exhibitions and museums from around the world.
Access to interviews with special guests and online events
Coming soon: The long-distance Creative Club - Monthly calls with like-minded creatives living around the world and navigating life across places
Founding members
For 150 EUR you can become a founding member and in addition to all of the above and my immense gratitude for supporting my writing, you will receive a personalised gift, which you can choose among:
A 1:1 call where I can answer your questions about writing, freelancing and running a creative business while living abroad
An itinerary for your next adventure including culture, art, bookish and foodie recommendations
Why Substack?
Through my work as a social media analyst for the past 10 years, I have seen the good and the bad, the pros and the cons of all online platforms and at the moment I’m really loving what Substack is doing for writers and creators and it’s definitely a place where I feel that I want to be “part of the crowd”.
If you are new to Substack and curious about discovering more, here is a guide to help you navigate its different areas. I will make sure to include details on how to get to different parts of it (Chat, Notes…) when I share things in different places.
Otherwise, you can just continue enjoying the newsletter directly in your inbox.
If you know someone who would love to join this newsletter and community of creatives, a subscription would make a wonderful gift.
If you have any questions about the newsletter or subscription you can message me directly here or at hello@morethanjustviews.com.
You can also find me on Instagram @morethanjust_views and follow my attempts at improving my photography and videos.
I can’t wait to be on this journey together and meet incredible creatives from around the world.