The Vatican opted to extend the visiting hours at St. Peter's Basilica on the evening of Wednesday, April 23, as thousands of mourners visited to pay their respects to Pope Francis who died on Monday,

Rome is in mourning as the world says goodbye to Pope Francis, a transformative leader and spiritual guide to more than a billion Catholics. His death marks the end of an era and sets in motion a series of historic religious events that will impact travel to Rome and Vatican City in the coming weeks.

Pope Francis has died at the age of 88. His death comes about two months after he was hospitalized for over 30 days for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia. Jillian Timmerman, the sister of WLWT anchor Megan Mitchell, is in the Vatican Monday as part of a scheduled vacation.