“IT’S nothing short of miraculous,” Don Franco Ottonelli says as he admires his brainchild, a modern, new apartment complex for immigrants and the homeless near the centre of Acqui Terme, a town in north-west Italy.

It was enough to send security into a tail spin when the new Pope opted for an impromptu walkabout outside the Church where he yesterday celebrated Sunday Mass.

In a city awash with pilgrims, and more places of prayer than you could shake a stick at, it was hardly surprising to find so many Irish in Rome this weekend.