Outline of Vatican City
Vatican City – an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state, being the sovereign territory of the Holy See and ruled by the Bishop of Rome—the Pope, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The territory of this landlocked sovereign city-state consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of approximately , and a population of just over 800. This makes Vatican City the smallest independent state in the world by both area and population.Geography of Vatican CityVatican City is an enclave in an urban area, and lacks the geographic features common to (much larger) countries:Demographics of Vatican City
List of diplomatic missions to the Holy See
This page lists diplomatic missions accredited to the Holy See, the government of the Catholic Church and the temporal ruler of the Vatican City. 87 countries currently maintain embassies to the Holy See. The Vatican City State, over which the Holy See is sovereign, is the smallest independent entity in the world and its size renders any resident diplomatic community impractical. Therefore, all embassies to the Holy See are located in Rome making Vatican City one of only two sovereign states, the other being Liechtenstein, with no resident embassies located within its territory. This leads to the unique situation that the Embassy of Italy to the Holy See is based on its home territory. This also means that an embassy of the Republic of China (more commonly known as Taiwan) to the Holy See is located in Italy, which does not recognize the Republic of China.