11.   Natasha Dolganova, a kindergarten teacher from Moscow, smiled ruefully when asked if she thought the pope would ever visit Russia.

12.   No pope ever visited Yugoslavia.

13.   Not only will the pope visit their homeland, but for the first time in almost three decades, Christmas is coming back.

14.   Officially, the pope is not visiting Mexico and the United States.

15.   On Monday, the pope visited Quneitra, a city in the Golan Heights that Syria chose for political reasons.

16.   The pope visits Seattle.

17.   The pope also visited the site alongside a stream that feeds into the Jordan River where, according to some scholars, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

18.   The pope visited Santiago de Cuba to celebrate an outdoor Mass in honor of the saint.

19.   The pope visited the Phillipines, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Sri Lanka, crisscrossing a region that embraces some of the least Christianized places on Earth.

20.   These are the major sites the pope will be visiting in and around New York City.