VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI will leave the heat of Rome July 7 for the papal villa in the hills just south of the Italian capital, a Vatican statement said.
The weekly general audiences as well as private audiences will be suspended until August, the July 2 statement said.
The pope will continue to meet the public at noon on Sundays at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo when he recites the Angelus prayer.
In past years Pope Benedict took a summer holiday in Les Combes, in the northern Italian Aosta region. Last summer he fell in his residence and fractured his right wrist.
The pope will resume the weekly general audiences Aug. 4, the statement said.