Castel Gandolfo

the weekend after arriving back in Rome, we took another day trip to Castel Gandolfo, the little town perched above a volcanic lake about 20 miles south of Rome. the town is most famous for the Apostolic Palace, which used to be the papal summer residence. Pope Francis no longer spends time here, so instead, the palace has been turned into a museum. yet again, i had to marvel at the ease and affordability of this last-minute trip. we booked regional train tickets online the day before. i read the itinerary about ten times because it said that we would switch trains in Termini and then the second train would be substituted by a bus service due to construction on the rail lines. i wasn't quite sure where we would board this bus, but assumed it would just be in front of the train station in Ciampino. at any rate, i had the paper with the name and number of the bus and decided we'd figure it out when we got there!

i have to say these excursions are a lot easier now than they were a year ago. as the hosts of the hilarious One Bad Mother podcast are wont to say: "we're getting really good at this!" it's partially just that the girls are another year older, both physically capable of doing more and mentally much more likely to want to do it. Greta remarkably walked the entire mile to the train station herself (!), stopping to pull out her fan at one point and announcing, "i sure am glad i remembered to bring this!" i've discovered that the girls are much happier on these trips if i let them each pack a small bag with whichever toys they choose. (um, duh!) the "stress" of having to keep track of two extra bags is far outweighed by their attitudes when they feel that they have some control over what's going on. and Greta especially is old enough to hold on to her own stuff and make sure she doesn't lose it.

have fan, will travel

the train to Termini brought us back to the reality of public transport in Rome. it was packed to the gills and we barely squeezed on, standing for the whole ride in the center part of the car because all the seats were taken. poor Cece had beads of sweat across the bridge of her nose and there was general chaos when we pulled into each station on the way to Termini as people were trying to get off and board when there was physically not any room to do so. but somehow we made it Termini in one piece and actually had our choice of seats on the train to Ciampino, where i pulled out sandwiches and fruit and felt once again like a seasoned budget traveler.





then we arrived in Ciampino and i was relieved to see printed signs with an arrow directing us out of the train station to where i assumed the bus would be waiting. sure enough, there was a whole fleet of coach buses parked in front of the station. we were walking around trying to see if any of them were displaying the route we needed, when i spotted a Trenitalia employee giving directions to a group of people. i showed her our tickets and she motioned for us to join the group. then she set off walking, out of the parking lot, through the city, around the corner, before leading us to another coach bus that was parked on the side of the road. so random! i don't know what would have happened if i didn't ask her about our tickets. she wasn't carrying any sort of sign and i certainly wouldn't have imagined that our bus would be so far away from the station. but once again, St. Raphael was looking out for us!

there were probably thirty of us, each as mystified as the others as we followed the employee
in the red vest on an unexpected walking tour of the city

anyway, the bus was actually very nice and the girls were fine for the 45-minute ride, just playing with their toys. as we pulled into the town of Castel Gandolfo, i was intrigued by this coffee and pastry shop we passed called "Manhattan". we disembarked on the side of the main road in the town (again, not at a bus stop or any sort of station) and caught our first glimpse of Lake Albano!

it's always tea-time somewhere! 

we were only about a quarter of a mile from the old town where the Apostolic Palace is, so we set off walking. by this point Greta had exhausted her quota of walking for the time being, so Nick pushed her in the stroller up a short but very steep hill. i guess i should qualify my previous statement about travel being easier now: they're both able to walk a lot more than they did before, but when they tucker out and we resort back to the stroller and the Ergo to drag them along with us, it's a bit more of a workout for us! 

proof that we're on the right road

hard to see from this angle but this hill was no joke, especially when hauling a 36-pound nugget! 

and, lest i paint too rosy a picture, by the time we made it up to the entrance of the Apostolic Palace, Greta was whining about being hungry and wanting gelato, refusing to get out of the stroller, and not wanting to go anywhere or see anything. so, you know. we powered through, gnashing of teeth notwithstanding. sorry, kid, you're going to see a whole fleet of Popemobiles whether you like it or not!

view from the top of the hill. i guess it was worth the climb...

entrance to the Apostolic Palace

Pope Benedict XVI's feelings about Castel Gandolfo: "Here I find everything: mountains, lake, and I
even see the sea ... and good people."

the most Roman QR code i've ever seen

thankfully, Greta perked right up when we got our audioguides and were able to walk around the central courtyard of the Apostolic Palace to check out the car collection. (there's also a whole separate building in the Vatican Museums dedicated to Popemobiles, including the one Pope St. John Paul II was riding in when he was shot in an assassination attempt.)

we joined a walking tour through the pontifical gardens, which were slightly underwhelming after the glories of Villa d'Este in Tivoli. Nick and i were both like, "we hate to be those people ... but these gardens aren't really that spectacular ..." i mean, it was pretty and all, but if you plan to see both gardens, definitely save Villa d'Este for last.

golf carts with Vatican City State license plates! 

the girls had a few minutes to play on the golf cart before the tour officially began

there were all kinds of little grottoes with ancient Roman artifacts

okay, this was beautiful!

Greta just wanted to go back and forth across these stepping stones

the most interesting part of the garden is the ancient Roman villa built by Emperor Domitian. you can still see the detail of the stucco of the ceiling. one of the staff members was teasing the girls and telling them that there was a lion inside the villa. Cecilia believed it at once and wanted to go see the lion (no fear!), and Greta just rolled her eyes. classic!

the wall of Emperor Domitian's villa

this pot has Pope Benedict XVI's papal crest on it

#hedgegoals

we were able to look up into the interior of the villa as well. according to the guide, somewhere at the end of this massive hallway was a sleeping lion...

detail of the stucco-work

we were nearing the end of the tour, and the girls were begging for snacks. i'm telling you, this is the secret to traveling with kids: bribes and snacks. (the bribe today was simple but effective: gelato!)

this tree kind of looked like a giant rhododendron -- but it can't possibly be one. right?

the tour concluded at one of the external gates, so we walked back through the little town to return to the entrance of the Apostolic Palace. it is such a cute little place! 

the papal crest of the Barberini family -- see the bees?

window with a view...

Nick spotted this at the same time i did and correctly guessed i needed to take a picture "for the 'gram"

the interior of the Apostolic Palace has now been turned into a museum. Nick made the genius move of asking for four audioguides, so the girls could each have their own. Greta took great delight in finding the numbers on the signs and keying in the corresponding numbers on the guide. 

fanciest switchplates ever

portrait of Pope Clement VII de Medici, who was pope during the politically precarious period
 from 1523-1534 and forced to seek refuge in the Castel Sant'Angelo during the Sack of Rome.
he personally approved Copernicus' theory of the earth revolving around the sun. 

portrait of Pope Sixtus V, who embarked on numerous ambitious building projects during his pontificate,
including the completion of the dome of St. Peter's and the installation of the obelisk in
St. Peter's Square. 

Greta was beyond thrilled to discover the papal chair of Pope Pius IX, who founded the NAC and also her school!

then we entered the inevitable phase of museum-visiting during which Greta insists on taking her own pictures with my phone. she likes to pose her subjects just so...

a portrait of Pope Pius IX (Pio Nono) himself

...and an epic portrait of Pope Benedict XVI

as we were walking up to the second floor of the museum, Greta said, "Let's pretend
I'm a princess and you're the queen, and this is our castle." sure, kiddo, i'll play!

the second floor contains the papal apartments

i'm slightly obsessed with this wallpaper

hard to beat the view!

the "waiting room"

reception room

private chapel

looking out over the grounds

what, your doors aren't covered in wallpaper?

we are pretty sure this desk was used by Pope Benedict XVI. it's no longer in use, but check out the next picture...

a Bavarian flag at the side table!

photographs from when the Pontifical Villas and Apostolic Palace were opened to refugees from the Holocaust. 

the papal bedroom

gorgeous altar!

Greta said, "THIS is the most beautiful of all!"

we swept through the last few rooms with the staff behind us, ready to close the doors (even though the museum technically didn't close for another ten minutes). even so, i insisted that the girls use the bathroom before we left -- you never pass up the opportunity to use a clean, free museum bathroom in Italy! then it was time to make good on our promise for gelato. Cece opted for her old standby, fragola (strawberry), and Greta asked for a combination of fragola and Oreo. 

finally, it was time to head back down the hill to catch the bus back to the train station. we grabbed porchetta sandwiches at a tiny restaurant across the road (the lady threw in a few free cookies for the girls!) and then joined a growing crowd of people who were also waiting for the bus. since this is just a temporary service to replace the local train, there is no specific bus stop or any type of signage to indicate exactly where the bus is supposed to stop. there must have been twenty of us, of varying nationalities, all waiting and hoping that we were roughly in the right place. as the minutes ticked on past the time the bus was due to arrive, i started racking my brain trying to think of a Plan B that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. thankfully, about seven minutes after it was scheduled to depart, the bus screeched up and we all piled aboard. my next worry was if we'd be able to make our train in Ciampino since we were leaving late, but thankfully, the bus driver made up the time. i've recently discovered the Trainline app, which makes train travel so much less stressful because you can pull up real-time updates on each train and see which platform you're arriving or departing from, so you have a better chance of pulling off a tight connection without having to search around for a departures board. so we made it all the way back to "our own little house", as Cece calls it, without incident!