Visitors can now combine a tour of the Vatican with a wander around the pope’s summer palace – travelling by the Pontiff’s railway. Our writer was among the first passengers on boardThings don’t approach more Da Vinci Code than a ride on the Pope’s railway – the centrepiece of a new tour launched by the Vatican Museums this month. The train departs the Vatican City’s private railway station – a marble building in the shadow of St Peter’s basilica – on a stretch of track that originates in a tunnel dug into the hillside beneath the Vatican Gardens. It travels along the 300-metre Vatican railway line – the shortest in the world – into Rome,then rumbles on to the Pope’s sumptuous Castel Gandolfo summer palace in the Alban hills south of the city.
This day-long excursion combines existing tours of the Vatican Museums and gardens with a tour of the grounds of the Castel Gandolfo. And for the first time the locations are linked by a ride on the Papal railway. At €40pp, it’s also the cheapest way to explore the papal properties: a guided tour of the museums and gardens in the Vatican alone costs €32.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com