With the summer heat in Rome almost unbearable, I’ve been following the saga of Pope Francis’s rejection of his various summer residences – from Castel Gandolfo to the humble Alpine chalet of Les Combes d’Introd – now that Francis has made it clear he doesn’t really do “vacation time”.
But what should the Vatican do with these architectural relics of papal history? Turn them into museums, or come up with some more novel ideas? Francis’s refusal to spend time at Castel Gandolfo, a vast 135-acre estate about an hour from Rome, was met by the Italian press with the sort of incredulity that the British media would display if Boris Johnson refused to use Chequers, or the Queen abandoned summer at Balmoral.
