This is one of my favorite museums anywhere. The ROM (rhymes with "tom"), as it's affectionately called, is Canada's largest museum, with more than 6 million objects in its collections. Unfortunately, in 2004, many of those pieces won't be on display because of the museum's ambitious renovation plan. Called Renaissance ROM, this C$200-million (US$142-million) project will add six new galleries overlooking Bloor Street West. The galleries will be encased inside an uber-modern palace of jutting crystal prisms designed by Daniel Libeskind. Personally, it brings to mind Superman's crystal palace at the North Pole, but I have to admit that the designs look spectacular (check out the ROM's website at www.rom.on.ca for details and a webcam that shows the work-in-progress).

While the results promise to be grand and will allow the ROM to display far more of its impressive collections, in the here and now the renovation makes the museum a less appealing place to visit, in my opinion. The breathtaking terrace galleries, which housed the world-renowned T. T. Tsui Galleries of Chinese Art, are one casualty of the reno, and the ROM has also lost its stellar restaurant, Jamie Kennedy at the Museum, which was one of the best in the city.

However, the ROM still deserves the two stars it gets this year. Intact exhibits include the Ancient Egypt Gallery, which features several mummies, and the Roman Gallery, which boasts the most extensive collection of its kind in Canada. There's also the Gallery of Korean Art, the largest exhibit of its kind in North America (it holds more than 200 works from the Bronze Age through modern times). Another attraction is the new Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery (in case you're curious, Christopher is the brother of Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient).

Many of the exhibits that kids love best are still here. One is the Bat Cave, a miniature replica of the St. Clair bat cave in Jamaica. It's complete with more than 3,000 lifelike bats roosting and flying through the air amid realistic spiders, crabs, a wildcat, and snakes. Kids also enjoy the spectacular Dinosaur Gallery, with its 13 skeletons on show. The hands-on Inco Limited Gallery of Earth Sciences in another drawing card, with plenty of interactive exhibits that teach kids how the world really works.