Pope Leo escapes Rome’s summer heat to the nearby Castel Gandolfo - Pope Leo XIV will resume the papal tradition of taking a summer break outside Rome

Urban was so enamored of his digs at Castel Gandalfo that shortly after vacationing there for the first time in 1626, he invited his secretary of state to get out of Rome and join him with a Latin poem extolling the attractions of the place. These included a trip on horseback a few miles south to the grove of Egeria on beautiful Lake Nemi.

Pope Leo XIV will spend two weeks of July at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, bringing back a centuries-old tradition that had been suspended by Pope Francis.