A picture taken at Castel Gandolfo shows the steam locomotive travelling to Castel Gandolfo Station from the Vatican station. — AFP
A picture taken at Castel Gandolfo shows the steam locomotive travelling to Castel Gandolfo Station from the Vatican station. — AFP
It was once used exclusively by Popes, but the Vatican’s train line can now be ridden by all from the Holy See to the papal summer palace.
Each Saturday, tourists can climb aboard for an express trip to Castel Gandolfo, a lavish estate Pope Francis has never used but wanted to share with the public in a gesture which will also boost the Church’s coffers.
From San Pietro, to Trastevere and Ostiense, the train chugs through the Italian capital and its green suburbs, down past the Roman ruins on the Via Appia, before climbing through the Alban hills to the picturesque Lake Albano.
Some 25 km from Rome, it pulls to a stop at the castle town, a former summer favourite with Popes hoping to escape the heat of the capital, and still frequented occasionally by Francis’s predecessor, Benedict XVI.
The villa and gardens, owned by the Holy See since 1596, expanded over the centuries to include other properties and now sprawl over 55 hectares.
Inside the grounds, there are views down to the lake or glimpses of the sea beyond gardens decorated with sculptures. There are also orchards of apricot, peach and olive trees, and greenhouses of ornamental flowers.
The estate’s gardens first opened to the public in 2014, with tours organised for groups and by reservation only. But workaholic Francis, who does not take vacations and has only been to the summer palace twice, urged his Museum’s director to go further, opening up the entire estate and setting up a new museum.
Visitors to the villa can stand where Popes down the centuries stood to bless summer Sunday crowds — the very window from which Benedict XVI said his last goodbyes before retiring from the papacy.
As well as a papal portrait gallery, visitors can pore over embellished vestments worn by the holders of Saint Peter’s Chair down the ages, including elegant papal slippers of the type shunned by down-to-earth Francis.
For 40 euros, tourists get the full package: They can skip the queue in the morning to see the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel in Rome, before walking through the Vatican’s gardens to the train station.
Once at Castel Gandolfo, they hop on a special white tourist train which takes them around the papal villa, including past the Pope’s organic farm, which houses cows, free-range hens, cockerels and pontifical bees.
