Museum

In Montevideo, Uruguay, the Museo del Automóvil (Colonia 1251; phone 902 47 92), at the corner of Colonia and Yi streets, is a hidden gem in more ways than one.

It was my privilege to visit Tiya as part of a trip to Ethiopia with Spiekermann Travel Service (Eastpointe, MI; 800/645-3233) in January ’11. Tiya is regarded as the most important of the 160 archaeological sites in the Soddo region south of Addis Ababa.

Thirty-six huge stone monoliths, 32 of which bear strange carvings of swords and other signs and symbols, stand clustered in the tall grasses of a large field less than a kilometer outside the small town of Tiya. The stelae were designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site in 1980.

Alicante is a small city on the Costa Blanca, part of Spain’s Mediterranean coast. It is a popular stop for many of the large cruise ships traveling between Barcelona and Málaga.

“TITANICa: The Exhibition,” on display in the Transport Galleries at Northern Ireland’s Ulster Folk & Transport Museum (phone +44 [0] 28 9042 8428) — on the main Belfast-to-Bangor road [A2], near Holywood — features 500 artifacts, including items from the Titanic’s parent company, White Star Line, as well as objects recovered from the wreck site of the ill-fated ship.

The Firenze Card provides a visitor to Florence, Italy, free admission to 33 museums, including the Uffizi and the Accademia, with entry to their permanent collections, special exhibitions and scheduled activities. While its price of €50 (near $71) may seem steep, cardholders can avoid queues and booking limitations and may use public transportation for free within the city.

Located in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, the new Hepworth Wakefield (phone +44 [0] 1924 247360) is England’s largest art gallery outside of London.

Strolling along Avenida del Libertador in Buenos Aires on an April-May ’10 trip to Argentina, I passed a building identified as the Automóvil Club Argentino (1850 Avenida del Libertador, Buenos Aires; phone 0800 777 2894), easily identified by the yellow flags out front and the steady stream of locals coming and going to renew their driving permits and tend to other bureaucratic business.

On Grand Cayman, the Cayman Motor Museum (864 North West Point Road, West Bay, Grand Cayman KY1-1202, Cayman Islands; phone, in the US, 345/947-7741), near Boatswain’s Beach, has 80 vintage vehicles on display. This private collection includes the “very first automobile ever produced,” an 1886 Benz, and the original Batmobile from the 1960s television show.

Open 9-5 Mon.-Sat. $15 adult or $7.50 child under 12.

Rome’s Museo Missionario di Propaganda Fide (Via di Propaganda, 1/C), housed in the 17th-century Palazzo di Propaganda Fide (designed by Bernini and Francesco Borromini), contains documents, sculptures and photographs that recount four centuries of missionary work by the Catholic church. Visitors also have access, for the first time, to the halls and chapels of the Baroque palazzo. €8 ($11.75). Museum open 2:30-6 p.m. Mon., Wed., Fri.

In the course of your travels, what work of art took you by surprise in that it affected you deeply in some way? Which one lingered in your memory for some reason or made you long to see it again? That’s what we asked recently, and many of you responded, as shown below.