The Vatican on Thursday unveiled plans for a yearlong restoration of the monumental baldacchino, or canopy, over the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, pledging to complete the work on Bernini’s masterpiece before Pope Francis’ big 2025 Jubilee. The price tag? About 700,000 euros ($770,000). A view of the 17th century, 95ft-tall bronze canopy by Giovan Lorenzo Bernini surmounting the papal Altar of the Confession in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) The restoration and conservation project, funded entirely by the Knights of Columbus and using the expertise of Vatican Museums’ restorers, marks the first comprehensive work on the 10-story tall baldacchino in 250 years. The structure, which is positioned over the basilica’s...
Read MoreDay: January 12, 2024
A cluster of lost cities in Ecuadorian Amazon that lasted 1,000 years has been mapped
Archeologists have uncovered a cluster of lost cities in the Amazon rainforest that was home to at least 10,000 farmers around 2,000 years ago. A series of earthen mounds and buried roads in Ecuador was first noticed more than two decades ago by archaeologist Stéphen Rostain. But at the time, “I wasn’t sure how it all fit together,” said Rostain, one of the researchers who reported on the finding Thursday in the journal Science. Recent mapping by laser-sensor technology revealed those sites to be part of a dense network of settlements and connecting roadways, tucked into the forested foothills of the Andes, that lasted about 1,000 years. This LIDAR image provided by researchers in January 2024 shows complexes of rectangular platforms are arranged around low squares and distribute...
Read MoreA marble map of ancient Rome, that hasn't been put on public view for almost 100 years, is getting its very own museum within sight of the Colosseum. The Museum of the Forma Urbis, enclosed within a new archaeological park on one of Rome's famous seven hills opens on Friday -- the latest offering from a city that is eager to broaden its attraction for growing hordes of tourists. "This is a beautiful day. We are opening an archaeological park in an extraordinary part of the city and a new museum showcasing a masterpiece which has not been visible for about a century," said Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri. Collection of epigraphic and architectural materials from the Forma Urbis museum is on display during the opening of the new Celio Antiquarium, near the Colosseum in Rome, Ita...
Read MoreThe first-of-its-kind combination of every vacation makes its official debut on Jan. 27 The new year is kicking off with an iconic celebration. Royal Caribbean International's highly anticipated Icon of the Seas has taken the center stage as it arrived in Miami for the first time. The first-of-its-kind combination of the best of every vacation was welcomed with fanfare by air, land and sea, ahead of its official debut on Jan. 27. Counting down to the start of a new era of vacations, local residents and Royal Caribbean fans, executives and employees were on hand as the first to see Miami's newest resident. Icon arrived to PortMiami in style, with celebratory fireboat salutes, banner planes in flight and a community celebration at Pérez Art Museum to mark the new vacation's first appe...
Read More