French President François Hollande met with Pope Francis privately Friday amid media speculation over his alleged affair with an actress, reports CNN.
Hollande also plans to meet Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and French clergy while in Rome.
Hours before he arrived at the Vatican, a small bomb exploded in central Rome near a French foundation and French cultural center, police said.
The blast damaged three cars and broke windows in two nearby buildings, said Agostino Vitolo, a spokesman for Italy's military police, or Carabinieri.
There's been no claim of responsibility for the bomb. It's unclear whether its detonation is linked to the visit by the French President.
Hollande's private life has been the subject of global headlines since claims in the French magazine Closer of a two-year affair with actress Julie Gayet.
The allegations of an affair have left the position of the President's partner, Valérie Trierweiler, in some doubt.
It's not clear whether she will accompany Hollande on a state visit to Washington next month.
Hollande and Trierweiler are working to issue a "clarification" concerning their relationship, Trierweiler's attorney, Frederique Giffard, told the French daily newspaper Le Figaro in an interview published late Thursday.
After the alleged love affair, Trierweiler "truly wants to resolve the matter in order to come out of it in the most dignified way possible," Giffard told Le Figaro.
Trierweiler has been Hollande's partner for several years.
Last weekend, she left the hospital where she'd spent a week being treated for stress and fatigue, Paris Match magazine reported. The same magazine -- where Trierweiler is a longtime correspondent -- said Saturday that she would recover for "several days" in an official residence in Versailles.
Hollande may hope his visit to Rome will help improve his standing in France, a majority-Catholic country.
His relationship with many Catholics was damaged by a bruising battle last year over the passage of a law allowing same-sex marriage and adoption. The measure was one of Hollande's election pledges.
Read more of this report from CNN.