Cindy Wooden

The Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and the Sistine Chapel usually top the "must see" list of visitors to Rome and the Vatican.

All but four of the 135 cardinals who are eligible to enter the conclave May 7 to vote for a new pope had arrived in Rome by May 2, according to the Vatican press office.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state since early in the pontificate of Pope Francis, has long been near the top of pundits' lists of potential successors to the Argentine pope.

St. John Paul II had the Domus Sanctae Marthae built primarily to house cardinals in simple comfort during a conclave.

The conclave to elect a new pope, scheduled to begin May 7, is governed by two texts: a rule book and a prayer book.

Pope Francis was "a Pope among the people, with an open heart toward everyone," said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, as he presided over the funeral of the Pope, who died April 21 at the age of 88.

A Benedictine abbot and a Capuchin cardinal will offer spiritual meditations on the needs of the Catholic Church to the cardinals preparing to elect a new pope, according to the Vatican press office.

Novels and films that include or revolve around a conclave often include nefarious plotting, or at least politicking, and attempts to wing it when it comes to the rules for electing a new pope.

To the chanting of Christ's promise, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live," the mortal remains of Pope Francis were carried into St. Peter's Basilica by 14 pallbearers.

Pope Francis was a pastor first, "so consistently, so spontaneously and with such deep conviction," that it will remain a gift to the Catholic Church, said Cardinal Michael Czerny.