Vatican City

Vatican City
Location: 41 54' 08" N 12 27' 26" E (Copy&Paste in Google Earth)

Vatican City — formally State of the Vatican City, or Vatican City State (Latin: Status Civitatis Vaticanæ and Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano) — is an ecclesiastical sovereign landlocked enclave surrounded by Rome, Italy. The modern-day home of the popes, it is the smallest independent nation state in the world in terms of area and population. It is administered by the Holy See, the ecclesiastical seat of the Roman Catholic Church and its Eastern Rites.

The Head of State is the Pope; the Heads of Government are the Secretary of State and Governor of Vatican City (sometimes referred to as the President of Vatican City). Currently, they are Pope Benedict XVI, a German; Angelo Cardinal Sodano, an Italian; and Edmund Cardinal Szoka, an American of Polish descent. The governance of the Holy See is separate, consisting of the Roman Curia, in turn consisting of members of the College of Cardinals. The Heads of Government are concurrently agents of the Roman Curia.

The city takes its name from the Latin Mons Vaticanus, Vatican Hill. Mons Vaticanus, and the adjacent Vatican Fields upon which St. Peter's Basilica and its Sistine Chapel, Apostolic Palace and museums were built, predates Christendom. -Wikipedia