{"id":20540,"date":"2026-05-19T09:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/?p=20540"},"modified":"2026-05-19T09:11:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:11:36","slug":"popes-summer-residence-at-castel-gandolfo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/popes-summer-residence-at-castel-gandolfo\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope\u2019s Summer Residence at Castel Gandolfo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just about an hour from Rome,\u00a0 step into\u00a0<strong>Castel Gandolfo: a peaceful hilltop town overlooking the stunning Lake Albano<\/strong>. With\u00a0<strong>its cool summer breeze, it\u2019s noticeably fresher than Rome<\/strong>, which is exactly why Popes have traditionally spent their entire summers here.<\/p>\n<p>At the heart of it all is the\u00a0<strong>Apostolic Palace, the Pope\u2019s historic summer residence<\/strong>. Quiet, elegant and for decades closed to the public. In a rare and recent decision,\u00a0<strong>Pope Francis<\/strong>, known for never really taking vacations,\u00a0<strong>opened its doors, offering a insight behind the Vatican\u2019s usual walls<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Today, you can wander through the\u00a0<strong>Secret Garden<\/strong>, explore the\u00a0<strong>Papal Apartments<\/strong>\u00a0and discover the\u00a0<strong>Gallery of the Popes\u2019 Portraits<\/strong>. A walk through centuries of history, hidden details and stories most visitors never get to see.<\/p>\n<p>And the story doesn\u2019t stop there.\u00a0<strong>The current Pope has also returned to Castel Gandolfo<\/strong>, continuing the tradition while\u00a0<strong>respecting his predecessor\u2019s choice<\/strong>\u00a0to open the Palace to visitors. Even his private apartment remains part of the visit,\u00a0 an unusually intimate look into papal life. And\u00a0<strong>Pope Leo has chosen to stay nearby, in a newly renovated small residence<\/strong>\u00a0set within the beautiful\u00a0<strong>Barberini Gardens<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>A place of silence, history and unexpected beauty&#8230; just beyond Rome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just about an hour from Rome,\u00a0 step into\u00a0Castel Gandolfo: a peaceful hilltop town overlooking the stunning Lake Albano. With\u00a0its cool summer breeze, it\u2019s noticeably fresher than Rome, which is exactly why Popes have traditionally spent their entire summers here. At the heart of it all is the\u00a0Apostolic Palace, the Pope\u2019s historic summer residence. Quiet, elegant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[143,193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appetitours","category-around-rome"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20550,"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20540\/revisions\/20550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/appetitours.com\/wordpress2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}