Many people have an idea about Benedict XVI, the pope, but how about Benedict XVI, the person?

A reputation for being his own person and something of Vatican fashion celebrity came on the heels of gossip about his wearing red Prada shoes and Gucci sunglasses. (The Vatican later announced the loafers were not made by Prada, but provided by the pope's personal cobbler.)

Pope Benedict XVI, however, does have several interests that aren't disputed, including his love of cats and classical music, which he often listens to on his specially engraved Apple iPod nano.

The iPod was given to him by a group of Vatican Radio employees during his first visit to the radio's broadcasting headquarters. The mp3 player was also loaded with special Vatican Radio programming.

The pope plays the piano and likes to listen to Bach and Mozart, whom he said "thoroughly penetrated" his soul while growing up in the 1920s and 1930s in rural Bavaria, near Salzburg, Austria, Mozart's birthplace, according to the Cultural Catholic.

A cat person who has two cats of his own, the pope is known as an advocate for the welfare of animals.

"We can see that they are given into our care, that we cannot just do whatever we want with them. Animals, too, are God's creatures," the Cultural Catholic quoted him as saying.

Among his favorite things, the pope counts mozzarella cheese sent by the bishops in the Campania region of Italy. The cheese is sent as a gift to the pope.

Pope Benedict is fluent in German, English, Italian, French, and Spanish and knows some Portuguese. He also speaks classical Latin.

Some of the things the pope misses most about Bavaria, according to the Cultural Catholic, is Adelholzener fruit nectar, Bavarian sausage from his favorite restaurant Franziskaner, Advent wreaths and Bavarian Christmas trees.

The Web site also said the pope still has the stuffed animals his mother made for him as a child and his favorite meal is Bavarian potato ravioli with pancake strips.

It also seems that Benedict is a high-flying pope: He has a pilot's license for the papal helicopter and likes to fly from the Vatican to the papal summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, the Cultural Catholic said.

However, he reportedly does not have a driver's license since he never learned to drive a car.