All aboard the Vatican train for pope's summer castle

Yahoo – AFP, Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere, 14 Sep 2015

A steam locomotive prepares to depart from the Vatican's train station to the

pope's summer home of Castel Gandolfo (AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Castel Gandolfo (Italy) (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.

The crew of a steam locomotive prepare

 for its departure from the Vatican's train

 station to the pope's summer home of

 Castel Gandolfo (AFP Photo/Filippo

Monteforte)

Some 25 kilometres (15 miles) 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 (135 acres).

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.

'Closed for centuries'

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 ($45), 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.

From the train's windows they get a glimpse at the makings of the papal menu: freshly laid eggs, milk, vegetables, fruit, honey and fat rounds of caciotta cheese from the farm often end up on the pope's table back in the Vatican.

Tourists can now take a train trip to Castel Gandolfo, a lavish estate Pope Francis

has never used but wanted to share with the public (AFP Photo/Filippo Monteforte)

Visitors can then wander around the town of Castel Gandolfo, a mediaeval borough listed among Italy's most beautiful, before getting the train back to the Vatican in the afternoon.

There is also a 16 euro option for those who want to skip the Vatican Museums and just do Castel Gandolfo.

Frugal Francis, who has shunned the Holy See's papal apartments for life in a Vatican hotel, has said he has no time to visit the estate -- a decision, however, which has seen local shopkeepers hit by a drop in tourism.

The Argentine hopes that by launching the new link with the summer palace it will revive the struggling businesses.

"Seeing as he's unable to spend time at Castel Gandolfo because of his numerous engagements, Francis wanted to make a generous gesture so that we can all visit a place which has been closed for so many centuries," Osvaldo Gianoli, director of the Castel Gandolfo villas, told AFP.

Francis thrills in Philippines with 'jeepney' popemobile

Yahoo – AFP, 18 Jan 2015

Pope Francis waves to people as he leaves in his "popemobile" after attending

a mass at a park in Manila on January 18, 2015 (AFP Photo/Giuseppe Cacace)

Manila (AFP) - Pope Francis made a triumphant entrance for a mass with millions in the Philippines on Sunday aboard a "popemobile" styled after the nation's iconic, flamboyant and much-loved "jeepney" minibus.

The pontiff, standing in the elevated open body of the uniquely Filipino version of his popemobile, travelled through the streets of the capital Manila for the main event of his five-day visit.

Wearing a thick plastic yellow poncho over his vestments, the 78-year-old pontiff smiled and waved to hundreds of thousands who had lined the route to the venue for the mass.

The rectangular vehicle with a distinctive giant grille repeatedly stopped so he could reach into the cheering masses and pick up babies to kiss and bless them.

The pope rode the jeepney popemobile to Rizal Park where millions had gathered to hear him celebrate mass, in one of the world's biggest papal gatherings.

The jeepneys are regarded by many Filipinos as a symbol of national ingenuity. Locals created them from surplus US military jeeps after American forces left at the end of World War II.

The bodies of the jeeps were extended, seats were added and a fixed roof put in place. The vehicles were then painted with colourful and Catholic designs.

They proved to be strong vehicles with decades-long lifespans, and can be seen ferrying people through city streets and animals on mountain roads.

However the diesel-powered vehicles are also one the nation's chief air pollution culprits.

Francis's jeepney was an all-white popemobile. It had no doors, after the pope told local organisers he did not want a bulletproof vehicle so he could reach out and touch his followers.

Pope Francis (top L) kisses a child as he arrives to celebrate a mass

at a park in Manila on January 18, 2015 (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)

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Pope Francis, wearing a plastic raincoat, waves to well-wishers after

a mass in Tacloban, on January 17, 2015 (AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele)

Pope admits risk in ditching 'sardine-can' popemobile

Yahoo – AFP, 13 June 2014

Pope Francis waves to the crowd from inside his popemobile as he arrives at

 Manger Square to celebrate an open air mass on May 25, 2014 in the West Bank

town of Bethlehem (AFP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto)

Barcelona (AFP) - Pope Francis admitted in an interview Friday that he takes a risk when he ditches a "sardine can" popemobile to greet the people, but at his age he has little to lose.

The 77-year-old pontiff recalled that for his July 2013 visit to Brazil officials had prepared a glass-enclosed "popemobile" to shield him.

"But I cannot greet the people and tell them I love them inside a sardine can, even if it is glass," he said in an interview with the Barcelona-based Vanguardia newspaper.

"For me it is a wall," said the spiritual leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

"It is true something could happen to me but let's be realistic, at my age I do not have much to lose," he told the paper's Vatican correspondent Henrique Cymerman.

"It is in God's hands."

Francis has preferred to use open-top cars in contrast to his predecessor Benedict XVI who rode in a bulletproof "popemobile" -- a novelty introduced after the attempted assassination of John Paul II in 1981.

Related Articles:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness.  …”