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Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has told a rally of several thousand young people in Rome's Piazza del Popolo they should aim that when they are older they can say they did everything they could to help the climate.

While the rally was part of the Friday school strike-for-climate movement, Italian classrooms were already shut for Easter vacation.

Thunberg told reporters: "I don't enjoy attention but I enjoy making a difference."

Since she doesn't fly to help the environment, the Swedish 16-year-old, asked what she'd do if she went to Washington or to U.N. headquarters in New York, said: "I guess I would have to take a boat."

On Wednesday, Thunberg chatted briefly with Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square. She said Francis, who champions environmental protection, was "very kind, encouraging" to her.