vatican railway, rome

the other night, walking around the Vatican’s walled borders, we came across an overpass i’d noticed before, but never given any thought. there’s a flight of stairs leading to the top, which we climbed — to discover the most delightful, perfectly-manicured stretch of railroad this side of Anaheim, California. it was, of course, the last hundred meters of Vatican City’s private railway; shiny, shrubbery-lined tracks which exit from a batcave-like opening set high into a thick brick wall, sealed with a massive iron gate. it’s cool.

climb the dome of st. peter’s (again, cool) and you can see the rest of the rail line out back, a Disneyesque station and train collection, all the cuter from that vantage point, sized perfectly as it were, to a model H.O. scale.