ROME – Reviving a tradition that reaches back to the 1600s, Pope Leo will spend most of July and at least part of August at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, located about an hour’s drive south of the Vatican in the hills above Lake Albano.

The Prefecture of the Papal Household issued an announcement Tuesday that Pope Leo will begin his stay at Castel Gandolfo on Sunday, July 6. The next Sunday, July 13, he will celebrate Mass at the pontifical parish of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo and then deliver the noontime Angelus address in the Piazza della Libertà, located in front of the Apostolic Palace.

As it happens, St. Thomas of Villanova was a 16^th century Spanish Augustinian, a member of the pope’s own religious order, and is also the namesake of Villanova University, where the young Robert Prevost earned a degree in mathematics in 1977.

On Sunday, July 20, Leo will say Mass at the cathedral church of Albano, then deliver the Angelus once again in the Piazza della Libertà. He’ll then return to the Vatican in the afternoon.

At some point in August he’ll return to Castel Gandolofo, as the announcement indicated that on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, which for Italians is also the national holiday of Ferragosto, he’ll once again celebrate Mass in the Parish of St. Thomas of Villanova followed by an Angelus in the piazza. He’ll also deliver the Sunday Angelus from the same location before returning to the Vatican.

During the month of July, all audiences, both public and private, will be suspended to accommodate the pope’s vacation schedule.

Although popes had opted to take their summer vacations at Castel Gandolfo since the early 1600s, Pope Francis famously opted not to do, preferring to remain instead in his residence at the Casa Santa Marta on Vatican grounds during his July breaks. Pope Francis visited Castel Gandolfo three times, including once to see his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who used the residence for a short time after his resignation in 2013, but Francis never spent the night.

As a result, the traditional papal residence was converted into a museum in October 2016, allowing visitors access to both the sprawling gardens and also the apostolic palace. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told Crux that Pope Leo will be staying in a villa that’s not part of the scheduled tours, and that the museum will continue to operate as normal during his residence.

Castel Gandolf is also now home to Borgo Laudato Si’, a project launched under Francis to promote integral ecology in keeping with the teachings of his 2015 encyclical letter on the environment. Bruni said the villa where Leo will be staying is on the grounds of the project, which will allow him to take stock of its progress and to encourage its work.

Though no one in the Vatican will confirm or deny, it may be that another attraction for Pope Leo of the summer residence is the proximity of the Tennis Club Castel Gandolfo, located next to the papal residence, which features red clay courts. Leo is an avid tennis buff, and it’s not difficult to imagine that the club would put its facilities at his disposition should he want to get in a few sets.