A Visit to the Vatican

At just over 108 acres, and with fewer than 1,000 residents, Vatican City is the world's smallest fully independent nation-state. So, how did this tiny Holy See come to be?

Before there was a Vatican, there was a hill in ancient Rome known as Mons Vaticanus (Vatican Hill). No one knows what "Vaticanus" meant, though it might have been a word drawn from the ancient Etruscan language. Back then, the Vatican was something of a low-rent district. It was the home of a few farmers and potters, while Rome proper sprawled across a series of hills a short distance away.

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