VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Almost 13 years have passed since a pope spent part of his summer at the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo, a hilltop town overlooking Lake Albano, just outside Rome. So, when Pope Leo XIV arrived at the Barberini Palace on Sunday (July 6), where he will stay this summer, for many residents, it was a welcome return to tradition.
“There is a lot of excitement because many years had passed and we weren’t prepared for these emotions, which instead returned as if it were yesterday, to be honest,” said Patrizia Gaspertini, a native of Castel Gandolfo who runs a souvenir shop just off the main square, in an interview with Religion News Service.
Tourists, pilgrims and citizens of Castel Gandolfo greeted the pope’s arrival with colorful festoons and cries of “Viva il Papa!” Leo greeted the crowds, especially children and the elderly, while walking the short distance from his electric blue van to the gates of the Barberini Palace, patrolled by two Swiss guards.
The pope will stay at the papal retreat from July 6 to 20, and he will return for the weekend of the Feast of the Assumption from August 15 to 17. On July 13, he will celebrate Mass at the Church of St. Thomas of Villanova, where he will also recite his Sunday Angelus prayer.
People walk along the ‘Corso della Repubblica’ in Castel Gandolfo, the pontifical palace in the background with one of the domes of the Vatican Observatory on top. (RNS photo/Claire Giangravé)
“History is returning on the right tracks,” said the Rev. Tadeusz Rozmus, the parish priest of the church, speaking to journalists soon after the pope’s arrival. “Castel Gandolfo has been married to the popes for over 400 years, and they are married to us,” he added, praising the temperate climate of the town compared to the scorching heatwave traversing Rome this July.
Rozmus, the proud owner of a Kawasaki Vulcan 1700 motorcycle, said bikers will also greet the pope in the coming days.
Castel Gandolfo residents have historically had a close relationship with popes, who, starting in the 17th century, have spent holidays in the town’s papal estates.
Stefano Caruso in Castel Gandolfo. (RNS photo/Claire Giangravé)
“Here we are used to seeing the Holy Father hiking, walking around, going to Mass or even coming out to greet people,” said Stefano Carosi, who runs a bar in town and was a child when Pope Paul VI would visit during the summer.
Leaders like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a Japanese emperor and former U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush have walked through the streets of Castel Gandolfo to meet the popes, Carosi recalled. He also remembered former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestine Liberation Organization, coming to his small town for diplomacy talks with Pope John Paul II. Two popes, Pope Pius XII and Paul VI, died in Castel Gandolfo, while Pope Benedict XVI spent the first months after his sudden retirement from the papacy at the summer estate.
Pope Francis visited the town twice in the first year of his pontificate in 2013, before deciding he would not spend his summers there. While several in the town said they were “disappointed” by Francis’ decision, they also said they were grateful for his choice to transform the former papal palace into a museum, drawing a new crowd of art and history enthusiasts.
The former papal residence will remain a museum, and Leo will stay at Villa Barberini, a palace built in the 1600s by Pope Urban VIII, designed by famous Baroque architects like Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The villa was restored to welcome the pope, and reports say it was furnished with a paddle court.
View of the Borgo Laudato Sì project at the Pontifical Villas’ Gardens in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. (RNS photo/Claire Giangravé)
Villa Barberini is located within the gardens of Castel Gandolfo, a 50-acre area filled with trees, fountains and manicured bushes built over the ruins of the Villa of the Emperor Domitian. Pope Francis transformed the gardens into Borgo Laudato Sì, a project aimed at enacting the principles laid out in his 2015 encyclical on care for the environment.
The Rev. Manuel Dorantes, project director of Borgo Laudato Sì, was born in Mexico and worked as a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago, where Pope Leo was born and raised. He will attend a private Mass with the pope on July 9, with a recently created liturgy for the care of creation.
The pope’s return “is important to this town,” said Maria Paola, who runs a coffee shop near the town center, adding, “it’s tradition.”