Pope Francis leaves for Brazil visit – carrying his own bag

Pope Francis has embarked on his first overseas voyage as head of the Roman Catholic church, carrying his own bag onto the Alitalia aircraft that will take him to his home continent for a week-long visit to Brazil.

After greeting the Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, on the tarmac at Rome's Fiumicino airport, the 76-year-old Argentinian boarded the A330 Airbus shortly before 9am local time, shaking hands with flight attendants and appearing to wave goodbye from inside the plane.

In keeping with his trademark style, he wore a plain white cassock and carried his hand luggage - a black leather briefcase- with him up the steps and into the plane.

The papal aircraft, carrying both Vatican officials and journalists, is due to touch down in Rio de Janeiro at 4pm local time. The Catholic church's first Latin American leader is expected to speak at a welcome ceremony at around 5pm, and then to meet Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff.

He will then spend the week visiting various sights in the world's most populous Catholic country as part of the World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations.

Appointments include celebrating mass at Aparecida, a religious shrine in Sao Paulo state, a visit to a favela in Rio which was recently "pacified" by police, and speaking to huge crowds on Copacabana beach.

High security will be in place throughout in Brazil, which has recently seen a wave of protests against creaking public services and political corruption. Officials have had to respond to Francis's desire not to ride in a bulletproof "pope-mobile" but in two open-top jeeps from which he can easily descend to meet the faithful.

On Monday morning, Francis posted a message on his various @pontifex Twitter accounts which read: "I am arriving in Brazil in a few hours and my heart is already full of joy because soon I will be with you to celebrate the 28th WYD."

In a message to the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, prior to his departure, he said he said he was going to encourage the young people at the WYD "to be witnesses of hope and makers of peace".