Pope Francis has given a lift to two lucky children during his general audience in St Peter's Square.

A particularly jovial Francis hopped off his white, open-air car to greet a group of schoolchildren from Perugia who presented him with a T-shirt from their school.

Seemingly joking, Francis asked if any of them wanted to take a spin through the square.

"Me! Me! Me!" they yelled.

Francis picked 11-year-olds Livio Bastianelli and Davide Maria Bianchi and the two hopped aboard.

Livio told the Associated Press it was a ride of a lifetime: "I was really excited. That never happens!"

Francis's sense of humour was also on display later as he joked that a monsignor, forced to cut short a reading because of a nagging cough, was "getting old".