Pope Leo XIV will greet cyclists who compete in the 108th edition of the Italian turn on Sunday, June 1, when they pass through the Vatican in a tour prior to the realization of the last stage of the competition.
According to a statement from the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the greeting will also be a gesture in memory of Pope Francis, who had welcomed the proposal of Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of said Dicastery, to carry out this event that will be held with the support of the Government of the State of the Vatican and Vatican Athletics, Vatican Sports Association that is an official member of the International Cycling Union.
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The tour of the Tour of Italy in the Vatican
Cyclists will enter the city of the Vatican by way Paolo VI – in a non -competitive section of about three kilometers – accessing the entrance of Petrian. “Each meter of the journey is loaded with history and suggests a spiritual dimension, in an environment where art, nature and surprising fauna are intertwined,” says the note.
The cyclists will pass by the Basilica and the Sacristy of San Pedro, and then go to the Vatican Gardens, crossing the area of the Church of Saint Stefano of the Abissinithe train station and the area of the Palace of the Interior.
Then they will pass through the Mater Ecclesiae monastery – where Pope Benedict XVI lived from his resignation to his death – also through the grotto of the Virgin of Lourdes, the Tower of San Juan and the helipad. Then they will go next to the walls of the Vatican by the call “Marian route“, where there are a lot of images of the Virgin Mary from different parts of the world.
The route will continue through the square garden and the Vatican museums, to later pass through the Via delle Fondamentanext to the Sistine Chapel. Then the cyclists will arrive at the esplanade of the Santa Marta house. From that place they will leave the city of the Vatican for the Porta del Perugino.
Once in Italian territory, the official start will be given to the last stage of the Tour of Italy.
https://www.vaticannews.va/es/papa/news/2025-05/papa-leon-xiv-saludo-ciclistas-giro-de-italia.html
The Popes and the Giro of Italy
According to a statement from the Dicasterio for Culture and Education, Pope Pius XII received in the Vatican audience the cyclists who participated in edition 29 (1964) and 33 (1950) to the cyclists of the Giro de Italia.
San Pablo VI did the same on May 30, 1964 with the participants of the 47th and 1974 edition with which the 57th edition ran. In July 1973, the monument that was before the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Ghisallo, proclaimed by Pius XII Patron of the Cyclists in the Santa Marta Square
San Juan Pablo II received the delegation of the 83rd Tour of Italy on May 12, 2000, during the Jubilee Year.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.