Pope Francis is on his way to Chile.
An Alitalia Boeing 777-200 ER took off from Rome's Fiumincino-Leonardo da Vinci airport with the pope on board at 8:55 on Monday.
The Argentine pontiff is set to arrive in Santiago after a flight of almost 16 hours at 20:10 local time, just after midnight in Italy. The one-week visit, the 22nd trip abroad of Francis's papacy and the sixth involving Latin America, will also take in Peru.
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