Vatican Museums -- Vatican City State

 Destination: Getting to Italy may be less than certain right now, but if you can get as far as Rome, the Vatican Museums reopened May 3 with restrictions. The stunning collections are well worth the price of admission.

Masses are offered throughout the day at the Vatican.Ask at the museum information desk for help.  

Photos: Top--Statues are seen above the exit to the Vatican Museums at the Vatican Feb. 3, 2021. The Vatican Museums reopened this week after a three-month closure as COVID-19 restrictions eased slightly in Italy. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Below-- A model of the Vatican City State was on display at the Vatican Museum in 2014. (Observer photo/Sharon Boehlefeld)

Why to go: The main museum on the grounds of the Vatican has several collections of artifacts, both religious and secular. But there are also archeological digs at the necropolis of the Via Triumphalis and at St. John Lateran in the city of Rome.  

Within the Vatican, museums include the Gregorian Egyptian and Etruscan museums, the lapidary Gallery, several papal rooms and the Sistine Chapel.

For those unable to travel to Rome, the museums’ collections can be seen on their Instagram account at instagram.com/vaticanmuseums/ and with their online “tours” at museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/tour-virtuali-elenco.html

If you’d like to keep up with the museum, you can sign up for a newsletter in Italian or English by clicking on the plus sign on the top of the page near the right. The menu uses pictographs for searching, information, tickets and merchandise.

Accessibility: Some parts of the main museum could be difficult to get to for those with limited mobility. Ask about elevator access. The Vatican Museum Office of Services and Public Relations can answer email questions at help.musei@scv.va.

(Grand) Kid friendly: All ages are welcome.

Info: Address — Vatican Museum, Viale Vaticana, 00165 Rome 

Phone — +39 06 69884676 or +39 06 69883145 

Website — https://m.museivaticani.va

— Sharon Boehlefeld compiled this story

Send Destinations ideas to seasonedobserver@rockforddiocese.org

Vatican Museums -- Rome, Italy

(CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Destination: If you’re heading to Rome in the next several weeks, a two-part exhibition — one at the Vatican and the other at the Jewish Museum of Rome — explores the significance of the menorah.
Masses are frequent in Rome. Check on the web for a location convenient for you.

Photo: A journalist looks at a replica of the 1st-century Arch of Titus, showing Roman soldiers carrying the menorah, in a exhibition at the Vatican May 15. The replica is the central motif in a two-part exhibition on the menorah at the Vatican and at the Jewish Museum in Rome. 

Why to go:  From a coin minted in the century before Christ’s birth to a 1987 Israeli comic book featuring a superhero with a menorah on his chest, the exhibit, “The Menorah: Worship, History and Myth,” documents the use of the seven-branched candelabra both as a religious item and a symbol of Jewish identity.
Among the pieces displayed at the Jewish Museum stands a towering mosaic inscription describing treasures buried at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. Dating from the 13th century, while the Crusades were raging, the mosaic’s 37-line inventory includes “the golden candelabrum” Titus brought to Rome.
The exhibit prominently features a replica of the 1st-century Arch of Titus, showing Roman soldiers carrying the menorah and other treasures into Rome. They also give a nod to the centuries-old legend that the Vatican is hiding the golden menorah from the Temple of Jerusalem.
Francesco Leone, the art historian who prepared the exhibit catalogue, told Catholic News Service the most historically reliable explanation of the Temple menorah’s fate is that it was taken as booty from Rome by the Vandals or Goths before the end of the fifth century and melted down.
Admission: The exhibit is scheduled to be open through July 23. One ticket — 25 euros — includes admission to the main part of the exhibit in the Charlemagne Wing just off St. Peter’s Square and to the Jewish Museum, located about a mile away at Rome’s main synagogue.
Hours vary at each museum and the Vatican Museums are closed on Sundays while the Jewish Museum is closed Saturdays.  Check details for both venues at the Vatican Museums website (below).
(Grand) Kid friendly: Of course.
Info: Address — Vatican Museums, Viale Vaticano, 00165 Rome
Phone — +39 06 69884676 or +39 06 69883145
Website — www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/eventi-e-novita/iniziative/mostre/2017/la-menora.html
— CNS; Sharon Boehlefeld contributed to this story.
Send Destinations ideas to seasonedobserver@rockforddiocese.org