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Travel briefs

Italy

Duomo encourages digital graffiti

VATICAN CITY — Florence’s famed Duomo is cleaning up its act, removing centuries of graffiti from the cathedral dome interior and letting new visitors leave their mark digitally instead.

The cathedral launched a pilot project last year in its Giotto-designed bell tower to allow visitors to use a touchscreen to leave a digital message rather than deface the 14th-century structure.

To date some 18,000 digital messages have been left, and the project was such a success that the cathedral ad-ministration said last week it was extending the project to Brunelleschi’s dome that dominates the Tuscan city. The sales pitch? Digital graffiti will be kept forever, while real graffiti will be removed.

Kentucky

Ark attraction adds biblical truth exhibit

WILLIAMSTOWN — Kentucky’s massive biblical attraction the Ark Encounter has opened a new exhibit that promotes the message of the Bible.

The 510-foot wooden ark modeled after the biblical story of Noah opened in July. Since then, it has drawn large crowds to Grant County in northern Kentucky.

The new exhibit is called “Why The Bible Is True.” A release from the Ark En-counter says the new exhibit is composed of 11 scenes on the bow end of the ark.

The group that built the ark, Answers in Genesis, promotes a literal interpretation of the Bible’s Old Testament and has attracted controversy with an assertion that the earth is about 6,000 years old.

The Associated Press

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