Rome: Castel Gandolfo Day Trip with Papal Palace Entry

We had the most wonderful day today! We wanted to get out of Rome for the day and I found this Castel Gondolfo day trip and it sounded perfect - and it was! We walked about 20 min this AM to meet our ride, and were whisked away on a 35 minute drive out of the city. Castel Gondolfo is a quaint and vibrant small town full of life and happy people. Deborah our guide is just amazing, friendly, well organized, and knowledgeable. We toured the old palace and then had a mobile tour of the gardens, we even drove by the Pope’s house where he stays when not in Rome. It was beautiful, scenery lovely, trees, flowers, etc. after we walked through the town then Deborah took us to a beautiful cafe overlooking this gorgeous lake. We relaxed and had lunch on our own, people and sailboat watched. There were only 4 people in our group so it felt very personalized. Highly recommend!

Our small group of six spent 6 hours enjoying the sights in the beautiful countryside outside of Rome with our excellent guide Deborah. It was a well planned day up to the village of Castel Gondolfo to see the papal villa and apartment that was only opened to the public view in 2016 by Pope Francis. From there we enjoyed the views of the deep blue volcanic crater lake and vistas extending out to the Mediterranean. Extra special was the 50 minute guided open air bus tour through the papal gardens and lunch at a 4 generation owned restaurant overlooking the lake. Deborah was delightful and a wealth of knowledge. We highly recommend!