Larnaca pilots city tour for visually impaired

An innovative tour for the visually impaired has taken place in Larnaca to develop city tours for visually disabled tourists and making the city more accessible.

The tour took place on Saturday, organised by the Tourism Development and Promotion company in collaboration with the Cyprus Youth Organisation and the municipality, together with the St Barnabas School for the Blind.

The first tour was attended by 13 people with visual impairments, of which six were blind and seven partially sighted, accompanied by six escorts.

The group started with a visit to the Pieridis Museum where participants had the opportunity to touch authentic exhibits from different eras, the history of which was explained by museum director Peter Ashdjian. They were also given the opportunity to discover fragrances of antiquity reproduced by the G. Lazaros Cultural Center based on studies by archaeologists.

The group then toured points of interest in the city accompanied by a guide, from Europe Square to the Medieval Castle of Larnaca. Along the way they visited the statues of the philosopher Zenon of Kition, Kimon of Athens, and Leo of Venice, which recounted their life stories and how they are linked to Larnaca, through the Larnaka Storytelling Statues mobile app.

Another activity premiered for the occasion was the 3-D printing of a replica of the head of the statue of Zenon of Kition, using printers supplied by Makerspace of the Cyprus Youth Organisation.

This replica was given to the participants to explore while the guide recounted the history of the Stoic philosopher.

The tour concluded with an experiential visit to the Kyriazis Medical History Museum, the only museum where visitors can touch all the exhibits, explore them, and even use some of them under the guidance of museum founder and owner, Dr. Marios Kyriazis. The most daring among the visitors took the opportunity to take a sniff of old medical cures and taste an ancient Salt Lake oil elixir.