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Before the Mass, there were cheers from the crowd when the pontiff appeared in his popemobile as it drove around St Peter's Square and down Via della Conciliazione to the river Tiber and back.

"Sometimes, I do feel underrated, yes," he admitted to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera after finishing in seventh position in the 2024 Ballon d'Or award.

David Yazbek, who conceived the idea of turning this stranger-than-fiction tale into a musical, wrote the score with Erik Della Penna.

Authorities said 140,000 people had lined the streets, clapping and waving as the hearse - a repurposed white popemobile - crossed the Tiber river and drove past some of Rome's most recognisable sights: the Colosseum, the Forum and the Altare della Patria national monument on Piazza Venezia.

Authorities said 140,000 had lined the streets, clapping and waving as the hearse – a repurposed white popemobile – crossed the Tiber river and drove past some of Rome's most recognisable sights: the Colosseum, the Forum and the Altare della Patria national monument on Piazza Venezia.