Like the President Of the USA There is No True Vacation For the Pope

I am sure if I have to see what Obama sees in his daily security briefing I could not just lay out by the pool and pour a Bourbon and Coke and just RELAX. Of course for the Pope the fact he is in his 80's and never will retire from this till he is dead adds to the strain

From the Vatican Newspaper translated on this page
At the residence in Castel Gandolfo:
The Pope's working vacation
Benedict XVI's summer stay in Castel Gandolfo is entering its third week - surrounded by the beauty of Nature and by history, as he himself said on the day he arrived here last July 7.

Apart from the fact that all his private and public audiences have been suspended in July, the Pope's day is not much different from his routine at the Vatican, though it starts somewhat later.

The Pope spends much time reading, studying and writing, punctuated by meditation and prayer, listening to music and playing the piano, and long afternoon walks in the gardens of the Pontifical Villas with his private secretary, Mons. Georg Gaenswein.

The Pope still has to look through his daily correspondence and important documents sent on daily from the Vatican, and he has been preparing for major events in the coming months.

Above all, his apostolic trips: to Carpineto Romano (Sept. 5), to the United Kingdom (Sept 15-19), to Palermo (Oct. 3), and to Spain (Nov. 6-7) - and all the papal texts that have to be written for these trips.

Then there is the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Bishops' Synod to be held at the Vatican Oct. 10-24.

He must also finalize his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation following the Special Assembly on the Word of God last year, as well as the Message for World Youth Day 2011.

At the end of July, he expects a working visit from his Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and a few days later, the arrival of his brother, Mons. Georg Ratzinger, who will be in Castel Gandolfo for all of August.

On Aug. 28-29, Castel Gandolfo will host the annual reunion-seminar of the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis, at which the Pope and his former doctoral students will discuss this year the hermeneutic of Vatican-II, based on the Pope's historic address to the Roman Curia in December 2005.