Vatican City, Jul 13, 2009 / 08:31 am
After completing a string of international visits and issuing his third encyclical, Pope Benedict XVI left this morning for a two-week vacation in the mountainous Valle d'Aosta region of Italy.
The Pope left Rome by plane at 10:30 this morning, bound for Turin in northern Italy. Following the hour-long flight, the Holy Father was taken by helicopter to a vacation home owned by the Salesians.
The chalet, located in Les Combes, is the same place where Pope Benedict vacationed in 2005 and 2006. The building is made of wood and stone, has two floors and is surrounded by a large garden. It stands at an altitude of 3,900 feet and has views of Mont Blanc and other mountains on the French-Italian frontier as well as the Italian-Swiss Alps. The late Pope John Paul II also frequented Les Combes.