Dressed all in white and complete
with a matching baseball cap, the Emeritus pope has been seen for the
first time since he retired - and he looks like he is enjoying every
minute.
The former Pope has been snapped wearing the baseball cap he usually wears only in the summer months.
The
picture was published in the infamous glossy Italian weekly Chi, the
same magazine that ran pictures of a topless Duchess of Cambridge on
holiday in France.
The ex Pope Benedict XVI, 85, was
pictured walking with the aid of a stick through the gardens of his
summer residence at Castelgandolfo on the outskirts of Rome where he
will be living until his new apartment - a renovated convent in the
grounds of the Vatican are ready.
He is not wearing his trademark red shoes but dark ones and he appears to be deep in conversation.
A second photograph saw the former Pope being joined on his walk by a group of housekeepers.
The
Vatican revealed last week he had enjoyed an evening of watching
television before having a night of 'serene and peaceful' sleep.
The
former First Leader of the Catholic Church will live at Castel Gandolfo
for several weeks, sleeping in a bed just 75cm wide and without a
canopy, unlike the one the much grander one slept in over his eight
years as pope.
He will then move to a specially prepared apartment at a convent in the Vatican.
The retired pontiff has reportedly taken with him a number theology books as well as music to listen to.
He was also hoping to play the piano - one of his favourite pastimes - in the evenings.