Discovery showcases Vatican: Inside The Eternal City on 8 April at 10 pm. The show will feature the Vatican, an independent city/state in the middle of the capital of Italy.

This 109 acre walled kingdom serves as home to the Pope, Europe’s last absolute monarch. The government of this sovereign state is run by Cardinal Edmund Szoka, an American whose role is somewhere between a governor and a mayor.

Though more than 5,000 people work for the Vatican , only about 500 live within its walls and less than half of these have Vatican passports. As the spiritual center for Catholicism, the Vatican attracts pilgrims, believers and non-believers from all over the world.

The show will featuring exclusive interviews with and also lift the veil on the inner world of the Vatican for the first time. The programme will also scrutinize the security routines of the Swiss Guarda and the Vigilanza (the Vatican 's own high powered police force), follow every minute detail of preparation for the Pope's private audiences.