![Flowers are seen in the Vatican Gardens Sept. 15, 2011. The trees, flowers, shrubs, shrines and fountains cover almost half of the Vatican's 109 acres. A Rome diocesan tour agency had started offering a new open-bus tour of the gardens. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)](http://dev.globalsistersreport.org/files/stories/images/CNS-VaticanFlowers2011%20%281000x684%29.jpg)
Flowers are seen in the Vatican Gardens Sept. 15, 2011. The trees, flowers, shrubs, shrines and fountains cover almost half of the Vatican's 109 acres. A Rome diocesan tour agency had started offering a new open-bus tour of the gardens. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."
- John Muir, from The Yosemite (1912), page 256.