MUSEYON BOOKS Smart City Guides for Travel, History, Art and Film Lovers

  You may recall that in our 2 Day guide to the northern Spanish city of San Sebastián, we warned against planning your trip during the yearly International Film Festival. Well, for all those looking to ingratiate themselves into the glamor of the Continental film world, here’s your guide to one of the most majestic festivals this side of the ... Read More »

Listen: Sufjan Stevens surprised the music world this morning when he released an eight song ep via BandCamp entitled, All Delighted People. The ep is available to download for $5 and to stream to your heart’s content here while it won’t be available in a physical copy until later this year. Sufjan’s 2005 album Illinois was named the “Best Album ... Read More »

  Not often does something started by a horrible dictator result in years of prosperity and art but Cinecittà Studios is that exception. Opened in April of 1937 by Mussolini in order to promote Italy and fascism with the slogan “Il cinema è l’arma più forte” (Cinema is the most powerful weapon), Cinecittà Studio is now the largest production studio ... Read More »

In the mid-1800s, the smallpox vaccine was readily available in New York but despite that, the city continued to suffer outbreaks of the often deadly disease. This continued plague on residents was due to the high amounts of immigrants arriving each day. To try and abate smallpox from spreading throughout the boroughs, a hospital was built on Blackwell’s Island in ... Read More »

You may have noticed that Italy this year is especially in love with Renaissance painter Caravaggio since this year marks the 400th anniversary of his birth. To add to the Caravaggiomania that is sweeping the country, last week the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano announced in a front page article that it had found a previously undiscovered Caravaggio in the sacristy ... Read More »

  The only ceiling Caravaggio ever painted has been hidden for hundreds of years in a villa in Rome. But now, Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi in an effort to “bring more life” into the crumbling Villa Aurora, which she inhabits with her husband Prince Nicolò Boncompagni Ludovisi, descendent of Popes Gregory XIII and Gregory XV, is on view to the ... Read More »

Nestled between Manhattan’s trendy Meat Packing shopping district and Chelsea, the historic building which now houses the Chelsea Market accomplishes what has been become quintessential of older buildings in New York, a re-imagining of space that juxtaposes the old with the new. In this case, the former National Biscuit Company factory built in the early 1900’s has had their concrete ... Read More »

With 2010 marking the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio, events all over Rome and beyond have been happening to celebrate the life of the doomed painter, from special exhibitions to digging up the painters bones.   Now Scala Group International, an Italian multimedia company, has launched a new iPhone and iPad app called appropriately, CaravaggioMania.     The app includes: 40 ... Read More »