Bringing a friends ashes to another country

Donna, are you catholic? If so, you might want to contact your priest and ask him for help. If you are not catholic, you might want to contact a catholic church near you and ask about scattering the ashes. I really doubt that you would be able to do that at the Vatican as Vatican city is very small and not much of a place to do it. There are private gardens in the Vatican but i'm sure that that would not be possible as there is only limited access by small tour groups. Good luck!!!!

I would just do it discreetly. I doubt you will get permision and if you do ask there will be a mountain of paperwork to wade through.

I suppose the best answer is to talk to a priest.

Where exactly did your friend want this done?? I mean, in the building?? That is a bit weird as he will get swept up ... the gardens maybe, are their gardens, I don't even remember.
Frankly, I know how much ash you will have to deal with, and I think you should only do a small portion, as I think it would be difficult to " sprinkle" the amount that you have discreetly. At least you have symbolically honored friend .

Believe it or not, the italian consulate in the U.S. has a webpage on transporting ashes into Italy:

Transporting Ashes Into Italy

That link gives you info about bringing the ashes into Italy. Scattering them somewhere is going to be difficult, especially if the person wanted the ashes scattered in the Vatican. I can't imagine where you could do that discreetly. Where would you be where there would not be a bunch of people around? The Catholic church only this year decided it's okay to scatter ashes at all, rather than inter them (cremation was okayed only in the last few decades) so I would be surprised if you could get permission to scatter someone's ashes anywhere in Vatican City. Maybe you could drive out into the countryside and scatter them there??

Here's an article on the Church's current stance on burial/cremation/scattering of ashes.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0800142.htm

Just found this relevant article:

Italian news - April 25

Italian cemeteries are preparing special areas for people to scatter ashes of the dead after a long-awaited law allowing them to do what they wish with remains was enacted.

Cremation met with resistance from the Catholic Church, which had banned followers from being cremated until 1963. It became legal in Italy in 1987, though there were historic precedents such as the cremation of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley on the beach of Viareggio in 1822.

Even when cremation became legal, Italians were still forced to keep ashes in a cemetery for hygienic reasons. A 2001 law abolished this, allowing them to keep or disperse ashes as they see fit. It came into force only recently.

The largest cemeteries in Rome and Milan are preparing 'memory gardens' to give friends and family members a place to disperse remains. Officials in Milan cited an increasing number of Italians preferring cremation, up to about 35% of total deaths, while in Rome cremations have risen 10% every year since 2001.

In November of 06' I did this very thing. My best friend (of 50 years) had passed.
She was Italian but had never made the time to visit Italy so I took her. She wasn't wasn't religious so she's not any where near the Vatican but she is "in" and "around" all parts of Rome, Lake Como, and in the town where her mother's family had come from. Took her from LAX in my carry on in a her Dad's Crown Royal bag (where he kept his hidden stash of cash for years) and just in case security made a stink I had the brochure from the funeral with her lovely picture on front and was ready to say, "I'm taking her home."

Bless you for doing this, your friend is lucky to have you. Believe it or not, the TSA has guidelines on this very topic, see: here. The most important note is to also check with your airline about any restrictions they might have.

As for scatttering ashes, you're going to have a hard time at the Vatican itself - very few places where you could do this without notice, and as prior posters mentioned, it is difficult to get into the gardens. Consider talking with your friend's family about other places he might consider special - so you could take a small amount to scatter discretely at the Vatican, but also other locations.