Vatican City, Mar 3, 2011 / 09:46 am
Specially-trained guides are now available to offer one-of-a-kind tours of the Vatican Museums to the deaf and blind.
The museums' staff announced the new service at a March 1 press conference. Initially, they will be offered for Italian speakers and signers.
In the tour for the blind and visually impaired, visitors are able to touch copies of two of “the 30 most important works” in the Pinacoteca – the Vatican museum that houses an extensive collection of paintings.
They are guided in groups of eight to examine a replica of Caravaggio's “Deposition from the Cross.” The work depicts Christ being taken down from the cross to be laid in the tomb.