When the Pope was in Castel Gandolfo in the summer residence, I handed over my competence as his driver to the gendarmes. Massimo Illuminati or the butler was taking care of him. They drove him from the palace to the gardens to the swimming pool or for a trip around the area. I, on the other hand, came to Castel Gandolfo when the Pope was leaving for a summer trip and had to be taken to the airport. If it was a trip around Italy, we covered only a short distance from the summer palace itself to the Ciampino airport, literally a few kilometers, and in the case of international pilgrimages we drove further, to Fiumicino. As for the Wednesday audiences, which were also held in the summer, the Pope would arrive by helicopter to the airstrip in the Vatican Gardens, and I was waiting for him there, I would take him by car to the Bell Gate, there he would change into a papamobile before we left for the square.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
Pages: 253 – 254
