Vatican ?'s

[Minnesota]

Why is the Vatican in Rome?

[jenstar]

That's where the castors fell off.

[jno]

Rome was the superpower of the day, so that's where the apostles would have wanted to preach; Peter is said to have died there, and the Vatican and St Peter's are built over his tomb.

[Zen]

Handy for the Mafia,bet the next pope is Italian.

[Octavius]

The history of the Vatican as a papal residence dates from the 5th cent., when, after Emperor Constantine I had built the basilica of St. Peter's (as per jno's answer above), Pope Symmachus built a palace nearby.

The pope usually resided in the Lateran Palace until the �Babylonian captivity� (14th cent.) in Avignon, France. After the return of the papacy to Rome (1377) the Vatican became the usual residence. The Renaissance popes, principally Sixtus IV , Innocent VIII , Alexander VI , Julius II , Leo X , and Clement VII , were great patrons of the arts, and it was they who began to assemble the great collections and to construct the wonderful galleries.

Gregory XIII and Sixtus V spent huge sums on the Vatican and also began the Quirinal, a palace that served as the papal residence from the 17th to the 19th cent., was the Italian royal palace from 1870 to 1946, and is now the home of the president of Italy.

[landie]

They reckon it's too heavy to move.

[seal!]

Robert Keith for pope!!!

[seal!]

And to answer your question, its in rome, because that's where the pope lives

[bernardo]

I predict that the next Pope will be

(a) Francis Arinze
(b) John Paul III
(c) not Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga

[babyshambles]

I want the next pope to be Arinze, just cos he was really jolly and nice to the news reporter on the telly the other day :D

[hopalong]

Why is Edinburgh Castle in Scotland?

[cockneyexile]

cardinal cormac murphy-o,connor for pope  actually the vatican is not in rome it is in vatican city

[Octavius]

I would like to see you go to tha Vatican without going to Rome then.

Edinburgh Castle was originally on Venice Beach in California, but a wealthy American decided to dismantle it and rebuild it on the site of the Edinburgh rock in Scotland in the 11th century. (not really true)

[bernardo]

Of course the Vatican is in Rome.  "Rome" is the name of a city which is spread across two countries.