Have you made your travel plans for the New Year? Our family plans to spend part of 2008 flying 5,000 miles to reunite with family in Hawaii. In addition, we will keep with tradition and take shorter trips to visit other attractions near our home.
In the coming weeks I plan to use this blog to profile unique events taking place around the world. Some may be happening in places you’ve always dreamed of traveling to while others may be occurring near your hometown. Either way I hope they inspire you to make 2008 a year of adventure. Traveling to different places and experiencing new cultures helps expand your horizons and can teach you lessons you would have never learned by staying at home.
CLEVELAND
Okay, it’s not the most exotic location in the world, but the city is hosting a rare event that is worth traveling to.
Cleveland has been chosen to display some of the earliest known depictions of Jesus. This May the city’s Western Reserve Historical Society will open its doors to a rare collection of Vatican art and artifacts that includes a reliquary containing bone fragments of St. Peter and personal belongings of Michelangelo.
Those items along with about 200 others make up the exhibit dubbed “Vatican Splendors from St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museums and Swiss Guard.” The show will only be making three stops on its North American tour. The exhibit will arrive in Cleveland after its debut in St. Petersburg, Florida and will run at the Western Reserve Historical Society from May 31 to September 7, 2008.
According to museum officials, the exhibit is an extremely rare event, as the Vatican doesn’t make a practice of loaning their treasures to other institutions. Organizers expect the “extraordinary exhibit” will draw 140,000 visitors to Cleveland.
Examples of Vatican art and artifacts that will be on view at the Historical Society next year include:
Items Used by Pope John Paul II—The collection includes the Pope’s pastoral staff and cape worn for the Jubilee year celebration and a special bronze cast of his hand, created just before his death.
The Tomb of St. Peter—A recreation of the second century Vatican necropolis with a reliquary containing bones of St. Peter.
The Papal Swiss Guard—–A display of the Papal Swiss Guard’s items include their colorful uniforms, armor and weapons that have been used for function and ceremony over the past 500 years.
An Election Exhibit—The display explores the process and ceremony designed to select and install a new pope. The exhibit includes a voting ballot, a white smoke cartridge used for announcing a selection and the first papal vestments created for the new pope.
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