Don’t be a Tourist in Sicily

Sigmund Freud called it “the loveliest region of Italy: a stunning orgy of colors, scents, and lights…a great delight”. Searching for the perfect Autumn getaway? Look no further, because our latest eBook from the Keyholder’s Library is here! Start planning your trip to Sicily now.

How the World’s First Floating Hotel ended up as a Doomed Wreck in North Korea

We’ll file this one under “Things that ended up in North Korea”. When it first opened in 1988 on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, it promised “paradise at sea”; a floating seven-storey mega structure with nearly 200 rooms, nightclubs, bars, restaurants, a helipad, a tennis court and a 50-seat underwater observatory. Within a decade, it would be…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLXXIV)

1. Waiting room with TV sets at Greyhound bus station, Los Angeles, USA, 1969 Found here. 2. Before McDonald’s there was “Snappy Service System” The saga of Snappy Service System dates back to the 1930s. This Chicago hamburger stand was forgotten for decades, encased under yellow paint during its long afterlife as La Pasadita, a…

Olympia Le-Tan transformed “Don’t be a Tourist” Books into Clutch Bags!

As an author and purveyor of curiosities, if there was ever a collaboration to be had, this was always it! So it is with great honour that we reveal the Olympia Le-Tan x Don’t be a Tourist Limited Edition embroidered Clutch bags, now available for curious collectors at OlympiaLeTan.com.

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLXXIII)

1. Porto Flavia, Italy, a sea harbor and former mining hub A tunnel approximately 600 metres long, dug out of the rock by the miners, appears halfway up a cliff, offering a breathtaking view of the captivating Pan di Zucchero sea stack, a 132-metre natural monument shaped over time. Today it’s open as a museum. 2. The…

Sleeping in the Archives: The Met’s Forgotten Fashion Brands

I’ve been digging through the archives of the Met Museum again. You’d be surprised how many fascinating stories of dormant fashion brands are buried in there. They ceased to exist for a variety of reasons, but many of the individual designs kept in the collection reveal a direct path of inspiration for well-known designers today.…

Liberating Paris with Mixed Reality

Vive la resistance! Join me 600m below Paris to liberate the city in a special new “Don’t be a Tourist” episode with Microsoft. Discover a WWII bunker deserted for decades and relive the liberation of Paris with HoloLens mixed reality technology through the eyes of French resistance fighters in the underworld.

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCLXXII)

1. The Best Cat Box ever? Found on Reddit Aww. 2. These Art Nouveau & Art Deco sketches of Italian architect Silvio Gambini Found on Italia Liberty. 3. A Hidden Staircase at the Winchester House There are just too many secret doors in the Winchester house to show them all. As the legend goes, Sarah Winchester believed…

How One Woman’s Lock of Hair could Become the World’s Most Precious Diamond

Like us, you might have assumed that a perfect diamond can only come from deep under the Earth’s crust, made from molten rock and metals, consisting of pure carbon which has been subject to immense and temperature for millions of years. But here’s a fun fact: hair and diamonds are both made out of carbon. And with…

She’s the 1970s Platinum-Selling Transgender Artist We’d Never Heard Of

It’s 1989 and Wendy Carlos is giving in an interview to the BBC surrounded by her electronic synthesizers and her Siamese cats. The Grammy-award winning composer and pioneer of electronic music is entirely in her element, giving a demonstration of the first commercially available keyboard instrument that she helped develop with Robert Moog. No one…