Yesterday, the Pope took a little trip:

An unscheduled pilgrimage for Benedict XVI who, yesterday afternoon, in a
"strictly private visit", went to Nemi in the heart of the Castelli Romani [name given to the cluster of towns in the Alban Hills near Rome, among them Castel Gandolfo and the tourist towns of Tivoli and Frascati] to visit the Convent of San Raimondo and the Sanctuary of the Crucified Jesus.

During the brief visit, the Pope also met with the Mercedari priests in charge of the Sanctuary.

"It was a historic day for the Convent in Nemi and for the Sanctuary," said Fr. Giacinto Masala, rector of the Sanctuary. "But it was a strictly private visit."

The Pope left the Papalr esidence in Castel Gandolfo at 4:30 p.m., accompanied by his visiting brother, Mons. Georg Ratzinger, and some Papal aides.

According to a French news agency report, after the Pope had spent some time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and the Crucifix at the Sanctuary, he joined in the recitation of Vespers for Mary as Queen Mother (Madonna Regina), whose feast was celebrated yesterday.

A bit on Nemi:

Immediately outside Nemi there is a sanctuary founded in 1637, but which became famous in 1669, when a miracle occurred. A Franciscan monk had sculptured a Crucifix on a piece of wood he had brought from Palestine, but he felt unable to give shape to the face of Christ and after praying for help, he fell asleep. At dawn, when he woke up, he discovered that the Crucifix had a face.
The sanctuary was visited by Pope Paulus VI in 1969, one of the first travels by a pope outside the Vatican in the XXth century.

And now…let us virtually travel with the Pope to…

Nemi! (Photo from user aeward at Flickr. )

Nemi is apparently quite famous for its strawberries.