Pope on a boat!: Francis visits Venice and is seen enjoying a canal tour after asking worshippers to 'pray for him' following health battle which saw 87-year-old pull out of Good Friday procession

Pope Francis has visited Venice and took part in a canal tour weeks after asking worshippers to 'pray for him' following a health battle.

The head of the Catholic Church appeared in good spirits in the Italian city on Sunday as he was welcomed to the city by roaring crowds of people.

The 87-year-old was seen smiling as he visited an art exhibition which was being held inside a women's prison and talking to female inmates who had their artworks on display.

He also took part in a trip to Saint Mark's Basilica in the centre of the city, before holding mass outside in St Mark's Square where he told the crowds his job was 'not easy.

Francis's Sunday morning visit represented an increasingly rare outing for the 87-year-old, who has been endured health and mobility problems that have ruled out any foreign trips so far this year.

Pope Francis waves at Gondoliers as he arrives in Venice for a rare public outing on Sunday morning

The head of the Catholic Church waves at crowds who lined the water's edge as he leaves the women's prison on Guidecca island. One group of fans hold a sign saying 'Benvenuto Papa Francesco', which means 'Welcome Pope Francis'

The Pope smiles as he enters St Mark's Basilica in Venice ahead of Sunday Mass this morning

Francis gets on a boat after meeting with artists at the Biennale exhibition in Venice on Sunday

In March he had unexpectedly withdrawn from a Good Friday procession to 'preserve his health', after battling respiratory problem all winter which have made it difficult for him to speak.

That last-minute decision had raised questions about how long Francis can continue to lead the Catholic Church, although he appeared to be in much better form in Venice on Sunday.

Venice, with its 121 islands and 436 bridges, isn't an easy place to negotiate, but Francis pulled it off, arriving by helicopter from Rome, crossing the Giudecca Canal in a water taxi and then arriving in St. Mark's Square in a mini popemobile that traversed the Grand Canal via a pontoon bridge erected for the occasion.

During an encounter with young people at the iconic Santa Maria della Salute basilica, Francis acknowledged the miracle that is Venice, admiring its 'enchanting beauty' and tradition as a place of East-West encounter, but warning that it is increasingly vulnerable to climate change and depopulation.

'Venice is at one with the waters upon which it sits,' Francis said. 

'Without the care and safeguarding of this natural environment, it might even cease to exist.'

However, the trip was also unusual because it came as Venice, sinking under rising sea levels and weighed down by the impact of over-tourism, is in the opening days of an experiment to try to limit the sort of day trips that Francis undertook on Sunday.

Venetian authorities last week launched a pilot programme to charge day-trippers 5 euro (£4.20) apiece on peak travel days. The aim is to encourage them to stay longer or come at off-peak times to cut down on crowds and make the city more liveable for its dwindling number of residents.

For Venice's Catholic patriarch, Archbishop Francesco Moraglia, the new tax programme is a worthwhile experiment, a potential necessary evil to try to preserve Venice as a liveable city for visitors and residents alike.

Pope Francis, pictured on a boat after leaving a women's prison on Sunday, crossed the Giudecca Canal in a water taxi

Pope Francis waves to the crowds as he leaves Giudecca island in Venice on Sunday morning

Francis smiles as he travels to holy mass in St Mark's Square in Venice in a mini popemobile

Pope Francis presides over mass at St Mark's Square during a rare visit to the city of Venice this morning

The Pope, flanked by bodyguards, arrives in St Mark's Square in Venice in his last event during his half-day trip to the city

Speaking to an estimated 10,500 people, Francis echoed those views, adding: 'Venice, which has always been a place of encounter and cultural exchange, is called to be a sign of beauty available to all.

'Starting with the least, a sign of fraternity and care for our common home.' 

In his first trip outside Rome in seven months, he called for prisoners to view their time behind bars as a chance for 'moral and material rebirth' as he viewed their artworks.

Francis travelled to the lagoon city to visit the Holy See's pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art show and meet with the people who created it.

Because the Vatican decided to mount its exhibit in the women's prison, and invited inmates to collaborate with the artists, the whole project took on a far more complex meaning - touching on Francis's belief in the power of art to uplift and unify, and of the need to give hope and solidarity to society's most marginalised.

Francis hit on both messages during his visit, which began in the courtyard of Giudecca prison where he met with the women inmates one by one.

As some of them wept, Francis told them: 'Paradoxically, a stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolised by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute.'

Francis then met with Biennale artists in the prison chapel, decorated with an installation by Brazilian visual artist Sonia Gomes of objects dangling from the ceiling, meant to draw the viewer's gaze upwards.

He urged the artists to embrace the Biennale's theme this year of Strangers Everywhere, to show solidarity with all those on the margins.

'Art has the status of a 'city of refuge', a city that disobeys the regime of violence and discrimination in order to create forms of human belonging capable of recognising, including, protecting and embracing everyone,' Francis said.

The Vatican exhibit turned the Giudecca prison, a former convent for reformed prostitutes, into one of the must-see attractions of this year's Biennale, even though to see it visitors must reserve in advance and go through a security check.

The Pope's apparent good spirits will be welcome to followers of the Catholic Church after his battle with ill health in recent months, which saw him pull out of the traditional Good Friday procession. 

Thousands of people gathered in St Mark's Square to watch the Pope give mass on Sunday morning

Visitors watch on as they attend mass in St Mark's Square this morning, which was held by Pope Francis

Before holding mass, the Pope prayed in front of the relics of Saint Mark in Saint Mark's Basilica

Gondoliers gathered on the canals of Venice as they awaited the arrival of Pope Francis on Sunday morning

In a brief statement on Friday, March 29, the Vatican had said that 'to preserve his health ahead of tomorrow's vigil and the Easter Sunday mass, Pope Francis will this evening follow the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum from the Santa Marta Residence', where he lives. 

Days later he held Mass at Saint Peter's Square from a window, during which he told people: 'Please do not forget to pray for me.'

He lightheartedly added: 'Have a good lunch, and until next time.'

A Vatican source previously said that there was 'no particular concern' about his health and that the decision to pullout had been 'simply a measure of caution'.

The Argentinian Jesuit had also cancelled his participation in the 'Via Crucis' in 2023, but that followed a three-day hospital stay for bronchitis, and was announced well ahead of time. Weeks later, he underwent a hernia operation.

Francis, who never takes holidays, made his last trip in September, to the southern French city of Marseille. In December, he cancelled a much-anticipated attendance at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. 

The Vatican has not yet confirmed a planned trip to Asia and Pacific Ocean nations for this summer.

Francis has previously left the door open to stepping down if he can no longer do the job. That would follow the example of his immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope since the Middle Ages to voluntarily step aside.

But in a memoir published in March, Francis wrote that he did 'not have any cause serious enough to make me think of resigning'.