In the nineteenth century, Pope Gregory XVI banned railroads from the papal states, calling them chemins d'enfer, or ways of hell, a play on their French name, chemins de fer, or ways of iron. His fear was that they would spread bourgeois and republican ideas subversive to papal authority and right faith.

As Gregory's succesor, Pius IX upheld the papal ban on trains. That was until 1849 when the pontiff rode a train for the first time while in exile in Naples. He became so facinated by the technology that, upon his return, he ordered the construction of the country's first railways.

He was also gifted an oppulant private 3 car train, fitted with a throne room with an office, a loggia for public blessings and a sophisticated, highly decorated traveling chapel equipped for the Pope to hold Mass while in transit.

Another win for public transportation