Lost in Sistine Chapel: Gran found after 3 days

Francisca Pulido Diaz, 72, who suffers from Alzheimer’s had travelled with her son and four daughters to Italy to attend a ceremony on January 31st in which one of her daughters, a nun, renewed her vows.

But the grandmother from Malaga in southern Spain became separated from the family group somewhere within the crowded Vatican Museums.

Museum security cameras caught Pulido, who was not carrying money, identification papers or a mobile phone, leaving the museum buildings and heading towards the bustling Piazza del Risorgimento.

Police were alerted and distributed photographs of the missing septuagenarian across the city.

But it was a photo posted on a Spanish expat Facebook page that finally led to her being found.

According to Spain´s ABC newspaper, staff from the Spanish Embassy posted a photo of the missing lady on the page Españoles en Roma with the notice: "Missing from Vatican Museum since Saturday. 72-year-old woman with purple hair wearing beige coat and black trousers." 

She was spotted just a short time later by a Spaniard on the Via Giulio Cesare.

Pulido was reunited with her family on Monday evening, who reported that she was in  "good health". They said she unable to tell them how she had spent her time except that she had "slept two nights on a sofa".