After a 12-year hiatus, Pope Leo XIV brought back the papal tradition of vacationing at Castel Gandolfo this summer for two weeks in July and three days in August.
The town, just a short train ride south of Rome, gets its name from the castle there built during the Middle Ages by the Gandolfi family and later passed onto the Savelli family in the 1200s.
The hilltop town that sits above Lake Albano, is also home to the Vatican Observatory, The Vatican property includes a papal palace and about 135 acres of gardens and farmland, along with fruit and olive orchards. Part of the pontifical grounds has also been converted into Borgo Laudato Si' — an ecological area inspired by Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical.
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