The Vatican has opened the doors to its secret gardens – historical parks full of fountains, artificial grottoes and historical buildings where, for centuries popes have come to seek refuge from their official duties. Beginning this summer, the Gardens will be accessible to visitors and pilgrims via eco-friendly, open-roofed minibuses for one-hour tours. The gardens cover more than a third of the 44 hectares of Vatican City and are cared for by a staff of 30. They host exotic plants and, at the beginning of last century, were also home to a rich diversity of wildlife. The tour will allow visitors to see the first headquarters of Vatican Radio, the medieval tower where Pope Leo XIII spent his summers and a copy of the Lourdes grotto built to scale, where pilgrims will be allowed to disembark temporarily and pray. The minibus tour will also pass by the Vatican railway station, now largely unused after the construction of a helipad under Pope Paul VI. The station sustained slight damage during World War II from an artillery. Historians remain divided over whether the shell came from allied or German forces. Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, Rome’s diocese tourism agency, will conduct the tours at a cost of 12 euros, plus a three-euro booking fee. Minibuses will embark every half-hour between 8am and 2pm every day except Sundays and Wednesdays, when the Pope holds weekly audiences. Audio tours are to be available in Italian, English, French, Spanish and German.