Popemobile

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.

Michelangelo's awesome frescoes of the Sistine Chapel are still stunning first-time visitors, but the papal crown has long been put aside and the Pope moves among adoring crowds on a popemobile, or a small family car, not a sedan chair.

As he rode in his popemobile around the vast airport carpark waving to the crowd, palm trees swayed furiously in the storm.

Everywhere Pope Francis went during his five-day visit, traffic stopped and the Catholic faithful scrambled for selfies as his popemobile drove past.

His role as peacemaker has also been commended - he went to great lengths to heal divisions following the brutal civil war in the Central African Republic, famously giving a ride on his popemobile to the imam who invited him to pray at a mosque in Bangui in 2015 and kissing the feet of South Sudan's rival leaders four years later.