Simple And Unobtrusive: Pope Francis Nights To The Record Store In Rome, Takes Home A Classic CD

JAKARTA - Unattractive and modest, Pope Francis left the Vatican to visit a music store in Rome, Italy on Tuesday evening local time.

Citing Reuters January 12, the visit was private, but Javier Martinez-Brocal, a journalist for the television news agency Rome Reports happened to be there, filmed it, and then posted it on Twitter.

The video shows the Pope, who dodged a bulletproof car leaving the shop and into a simple white Fiat 500 with a Vatican license plate, without attracting attention.

Pope Francis was in a record store called StereoSound which is located near the ancient Pantheon, for about 10 minutes. A Vatican spokesman said Pope Francis went there to bless the shop because it had just been renovated.

Meanwhile, Martinez-Brocal told Reuters, the shop owner told him he had been friends with Pope Francis years ago when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. They said they gave Pope a classical music CD, but declined to be more specific.

While a cardinal, he visited their shop to buy classical music recordings and CDs, while he was in Rome on church business and staying at a nearby residence to visit the priest.

It is known, Pope Francis is known to like Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and even tango music from his home country, Argentina. Citing Newsweek, Pope Francis grew up listening to opera and loving Mozart.

“Among musicians, I like Mozart, of course", Pope said, according to a 2013 interview with Classic FM. He's also a fan of Bach and Wagner, reports Classic FM.

This is not the first time the Pope has visited a shop in Rome. In 2015, two years after his election, he ordered new glasses from an optometrist in Rome. Originally, they would be sent to the Vatican. However, the Pope decided to take it upon himself.