For 400 years, as Rome sizzled under the summer sun, most popes found solace in a cooler pontifical palace in the hilltop town of Castel Gandolfo, 18 miles southwest of Rome. John Paul II and Benedict XVI set up camp there for several months each year to rest, but also work.

Then along came Pope Francis.

He traveled there three times in 2013, the year he was elected, twice to say Mass and once to visit his predecessor, Benedict, who loved Castel Gandolfo so much that he briefly retired there after leaving the papacy.

He never went back.

“We were orphaned,” said Maurizio Carosi, one of many residents who confessed to being dismayed by Francis’ decision.

It’s no surprise, then, that the announcement last month that Pope Leo XIV would be staying in Castel Gandolfo for two weeks in July — “for a period of rest” — was met with excitement, relief and a burst of last-minute renovations on papal properties. He is expected to arrive on Sunday.

“The Vatican is part of the DNA of our city; it is a second Vatican” because of the pope and the dignitaries who would visit him here, said Alberto De Angelis, the mayor. “You can’t imagine St. Peter’s without the pope, and you can’t imagine Castel Gandolfo without the pope,” he added, referring to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Other local residents were equally enthusiastic.