The shopkeeper named her daughter after him. The parish priest wears his old vestments. The former mayor dedicated a plaque to him on City Hall, and residents up and down this picturesque hilltop town reminisce about hearing him play the piano behind the palace walls on cool summer evenings.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is particularly beloved in Castel Gandolfo, where he joined a centuries-long list of pontiffs who summered at the papal villa overlooking Lake Alban in the hills south of Rome. Benedict’s death has hit its residents hard, since many knew him personally, and had already said their emotional farewells when he uttered his final words as pope from the palace's balcony overlooking the town square on Feb. 28, 2013.
