.- Just before departing for his own vacation in the Alps of northern Italy, Pope Benedict said that he hopes that everyone can have some vacation, to recharge their spiritual and physical energies and to come into a healthy contact with nature.
At 10.30 a.m. today, the Holy Father departed from Rome's Ciampino airport on an hour-long flight to the airport of Treviso-Istrana. From there he traveled by helicopter to Lorenzago, the mountain getaway where he will devote himself to “more time for prayer and reflection.”
The Pope will be staying in the same villa that John Paul II used several times for his vacations.
Benedict XVI will spend 18 days in the northern Italian alpine resort. After his vacation, he will go to his summer residence of Castelgandolfo where he will remain until the end of September.
