Pope Francis on Tuesday paid a home visit to Emma Bonino, a veteran politician who successfully campaigned in the 1970s to legalise abortion in Italy, bringing her a bouquet of roses and chocolates.

A photo posted by Bonino on social media showed them both sitting in wheelchairs on her sun-drenched terrace in Rome.

Bonino, 76, was released from hospital last month after suffering from respiratory and heart problems. Last year, she said she had recovered from an eight-year battle with lung cancer.

Francis, 87, has himself been dealing with occasional health issues.

He has frequently expressed opposition to abortion, calling it "murder" and tantamount to "hiring a hit man". But he has also struck up relationships with several anticlerical Italian figures.

Bonino was first elected to the Italian parliament in 1976 as a member of the anti-establishment Radical Party, which pushed passage of a law to legalise abortion in 1978, later confirmed by a national referendum in 1981.

A human rights and social justice champion, she was also a member of the European Commission in the 1990s and served as foreign, trade and EU affairs minister in Italian centre-left governments of the 2000s and 2010s.

Francis was seen stopping in at her apartment in central Rome after a morning visit to the nearby Pontifical Gregorian University. The Vatican press office confirmed the pope's visit, but said it would not provide further details.

In her social media post, Bonino praised Francis' "extraordinary humanity" and said he had called her "an example of freedom and resistance". He also brought her roses and chocolates, she said.

As he was leaving Bonino's home, Francis was asked by a La Repubblica journalist how the politician was doing.

"Very well," he replied, according to a video published by Italian media outlets.