Tough economic times have reached – The Vatican.

Now, it’s reaching out to tourists,pilgrims  and stamp collectors to help finance the restoration of Bernini’s 17th-century Colonnade in St. Peter’s Square.

The  elegant elliptical Colonnade draws thousands of visitors to St. Peter’s Basilica and took Gian Lorenzo Bernini more than a decade to design and build.

For 26 dollars you get a souvenir sheet of two 10 Euro stamps affixed to a certificate, one featuring Pope Benedict the 16th’s coat of arms and the other the seal of Pope Alexander the 7th, who  gave Bernini the commission for the colonnade in 1657.