Vatican Gardens by Private Golf Cart: A Hidden Eden
The Vatican Gardens occupy fifty-five hectares of the Vatican Hill — fountains by Bramante and Vignola, the four niche-statues of the Casina of Pius IV, a working vegetable garden that supplies the Apostolic Palace, the medieval Tower of John VIII, the modern Lourdes Grotto presented by France in 1902, and the small Ethiopian seminary garden donated by Pius XI — and they are essentially closed to ordinary tourism. There is a single official Vatican Gardens minibus tour that departs three mornings a week, books out three months ahead, and is conducted at the speed of a coach in heavy traffic. The alternative — and, in our practice, the only acceptable alternative for luxury visitors — is a private electric golf-cart visit, with Olga, in the first hour after sunrise, when the gardens are emptier than the cloister of a monastery.
Why this is the Vatican’s signature private experience
The golf-cart visit is the rarest of the Vatican’s private grants. The Vatican governorate issues a fixed number of cart slots per week — most are reserved for cardinals, visiting heads of state, and the small circle of Roman art historians who have worked with the Vatican for decades. We have negotiated a recurring weekly allocation; we use it sparingly. For the guests who request it, the experience is, in our judgement, the single most luxurious moment that Rome offers — closer to a private papal audience than to a museum visit.
What the gardens actually contain
The Vatican Gardens are a complete encyclopaedia of Italian garden history. The Renaissance core, designed by Bramante for Julius II in 1505, includes the Cortile del Belvedere and the great hemicycle that closes it; the Mannerist Casina Pio IV (1561), designed by Pirro Ligorio for Pope Pius IV, is one of the supreme garden architectural objects in Europe; the Mannerist «giardino segreto» of Pius IV survives almost intact; the great Eagle Fountain by Vasanzio (1612) marks the move to baroque grandeur; the formal parterre of the Pope’s Garden was redesigned by John Paul II in the 1980s with vegetable beds for the Apostolic kitchens. The cart route covers all of these in ninety minutes — at human pace, with pauses for the right light on each, and with Olga’s reading of which Pope commissioned what and why.
How the morning unfolds
The cart visit begins at 07:45 at the dedicated Vatican governorate gate (Porta Sant’Anna for our guests). A Vatican governorate driver pilots the cart; Olga sits next to him; the guests ride behind. We start with the Renaissance core (Cortile del Belvedere, Pinacoteca courtyard), pass to the Mannerist Casina, cross the upper Belvedere to the Lourdes Grotto, descend through the Pope’s vegetable garden, pause at the heliport (rarely seen by visitors), and finish at the Ethiopian seminary chapel. The route is ninety minutes including pauses, ends at 09:15, and is followed — if guests wish — by the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel without queue (see our Vatican without queues itinerary) or by a private breakfast at the Vatican governorate’s discreet bar.
The Pope’s vegetable garden, in detail
Perhaps the most touching element of the visit is the pope’s vegetable garden — a quarter-hectare of formal beds, just below the Lourdes Grotto, where the produce that feeds the Apostolic kitchens is grown. The beds rotate seasonally: artichokes in spring, tomatoes and aubergines in summer, brassicas in autumn, fennel and chicories in winter. The Pope’s gardener — one of three gardeners attached personally to the Holy Father’s household — tends the beds, and on certain mornings is present in the garden when our cart passes. A wave from him is, by Vatican convention, an unfailing benediction.
Pairing with the great Vatican itineraries
The cart visit pairs naturally with three other Vatican experiences in our private repertoire: the Sistine Chapel night opening, the Vatican Library and Secret Archives, and the Vatican Necropolis (the «Scavi» under St Peter’s). Guests who book the cart visit alongside two of these complete the most comprehensive private Vatican itinerary that can be assembled. The natural booking window is twelve weeks ahead for any single one, sixteen weeks for the combination.
Light, season and the practical morning
The light in the Vatican Gardens is best between 07:45 and 09:00 in summer, when the sun comes over the dome of St Peter’s from the east; between 08:30 and 10:00 in autumn and winter, when the sun rises later but the air is clear. We do not book the cart between 12 July and 20 August: the heat is unkind to the older garden beds and the visit loses its slow quality. We do book it on the first morning of November — a day of fine clear light when the Lourdes Grotto is, by Roman tradition, decorated with chrysanthemums.
To plan a private Vatican Gardens golf-cart visit with Olga, contact via Telegram.
