Route
The Vatican City State Railway branches off from the Rome to Viterbo railway line at the "Roma San Pietro railway station" and crosses Gelsomino valley via a 143.12 metre long masonry viaduct of eight 15.30 metre arches (bearing the Fasces and the Savoy Coat of Arms), which crosses Viale Vaticano (which it interrupts) and Via Aurelia. The Via delle Cave and the Via del Gelsomino are also interrupted by the viaduct and thus merge with the Via Aurelia.
Before passing through the Vatican City walls and terminating in the Vatican City railway station, the line passes under an arch decorated with the Coat of Arms of Pope Pius XI with a sliding two-piece 35.5 ton iron gate which slides into the recesses of the Vatican walls. The gate is closed when there is no traffic scheduled on the line.
The railway counts two tracks (partly located in Rome, outside the gateway), but only one is served by a station platform. Two terminal load tracks, for freight wagons, are situated on the northeast side of the building. They are linked to the main track that ends in a headshunt in a tunnel.
The station is located close to Vatican Gardens, behind St. Peter's Basilica. The gateway separating the station from rail track in Italian territory is part of Leonine Wall. Other relevant buildings located close to the station are the Governatorate Palace and the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
Read more about this topic: Rail Transport In Vatican City
Famous quotes containing the word route:
“In the mountains the shortest route is from peak to peak, but for that you must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks: and those to whom they are spoken should be big and tall of stature.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The route through childhood is shaped by many forces, and it differs for each of us. Our biological inheritance, the temperament with which we are born, the care we receive, our family relationships, the place where we grow up, the schools we attend, the culture in which we participate, and the historical period in which we live—all these affect the paths we take through childhood and condition the remainder of our lives.”
—Robert H. Wozniak (20th century)
“By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule—
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of space—out of time.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)