Rome Jubilee: After 25 years, the city tries to clean up for the world and 35 million visitors

For the last year, Rome has gone through its biggest rebuild since about the time it got sacked in the 5th century. Scaffolding has covered dozens of ancient monuments. Cement blocks have been piled up in piazzas and on street corners. Light rail tracks and train station escalators have been blocked.

What happened? The Goths marauded through here again? Rome more resembles a jigsaw puzzle missing a few pieces than one of the most beautiful cities on Earth. The other day I think I saw a half-covered marble statue flip off a construction worker.

No, what has happened is Rome is set to reveal itself to the world even more than it usually does. The Jubilee, the Vatican’s celebration of spirituality and reconciliation that only occurs every 25 years, began Tuesday night. Through Jan. 24, 2026, pilgrims, tourists and intrepid travelers will pour into Rome to discover everything from higher spirituality to what real Italian food tastes like.

The numbers

According to Italy’s National Tourist Research Institute, the Jubilee will attract 35 million people. That’s nearly triple the number from 2023 when 13 million people, finally unleashed by the relative taming of Covid, packed the city to uncomfortable levels.

Rome’s economic impact is expected to be €4 billion-€6 billion. We’re told we’ll also reap the benefits of polished ancient monuments and improved public transportation that no longer resembles that of 1st century Judea.

It’s still a mess. A Cyclone fence has marred the Ponte Sant’Angelo bridge connecting Centro Storico to Castel Sant’Angelo, Emperor Hadrian’s 2nd century A.D. mausoleum. A crane mars the pristine view of St. Peter’s Basilica on the grand Via della Conciliazione. I’ve climbed more steps than Sir Edmund Hillary with the escalator at my neighborhood train station closed.

But the tarp is starting to peel away, revealing a Rome we haven’t seen in decades. Some marble monuments dating back 2,000 years shine as if built last week. Train stations are reopening. Even a bike path was built connecting my old neighborhood in Testaccio with St. Peter’s 1 ½ kilometers away.

Chiesa di Santa Maria del Popolo, where you can view two Caravaggio masterpieces for free just for escaping the rain, has reopened.

The city is even cleaner. Mayor Roberto Gualtieri lived up to his promise when elected three years ago. My street in middle-class Monteverde Nuovo no longer resembles a training camp for vandals.

“Like all capitals, we are constantly under the pressure from tourism and frequent mega events,” Deputy Mayor of Mobility Eugenio Patanè told CNN. “Rome is a city where we embrace these challenges and welcome visitors, so these big events don’t scare us. We know how to adapt to the pressure.” 

In St. Peter’s, the Baldachin, a 94-foot sculpted bronze canopy, has been restored for the first time in 150 years. Look through it to the Cathedra Petri, the bronze gilt, gold-covered chair which, according to legend, St. Peter’s sat in and taught children. Its gold has been polished to where it lights up the second altar inside the church.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who designed both pieces in the 17th century, would be proud. He’d also love the new finish they gave his prize Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in Piazza Navona. And yes, the piazza last week finally got rid of the workers’ outhouses.

“Rome is Rome,” said Rob Allyn, the American president of Through Eternity Tours in Rome. “I moved to Rome in ‘97 so I remember they got ready for the (2000) Jubilee a little earlier than this year. It seems a little rushed. It was rushed then, too, but they got it done in time.”

Jubilee meaning

First, what’s the draw? What exactly is the Jubilee? It goes back to the Old Testament where a biblical tradition states that every 50 years a year was proclaimed for a time of freedom and reconciliation. Debts were forgiven. Slaves were freed. Land was returned to the original owners.

In 1300 Pope Boniface VIII established a time for forgiveness and spiritual renewal. He called it “Plenary indulgence,” a complete remission of sins for those who: confess, participate in the Eurcherist, pray and perform either a work of mercy or a pilgrimage.

It would be celebrated every 25 years.

Part of the modern tradition is the opening of the Holy Doors. Rome has four churches that are Vatican basilicas: St. Peter’s, St. Paul Outside the Wall, St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. Each one has a Holy Door that remains closed for 25 years – until the Jubilee.

Then they are open to the public starting with St. Peter’s Tuesday night. (Other opening dates will be St. John Lateran on Sunday, St. Mary Major on Jan. 1 and St. Paul’s Outside the Walls  on Jan. 5.) They are free entrances to the church. Unlike in 2000 when anyone could just walk through the door, this time you need to sign up for a day and time through an app that will give you a QR code. Click on this link to download it. 

The Jubille, billed “Pilgrims of Hope,” will also be marked with Jubilees for various groups on specific dates. For example of some, Jan. 24-26 is the Jubilee of the World of Communications, Feb. 8-9 the Jubilee of Armed Forces, April 25-27 the Jubilee of Teenagers. Check here for the schedule.

Jubilee tips

The city is not sold out. Not yet. Rome has 400,000 beds. But if you’re thinking of going, figure out your dates and book your hotel. Fast. The hotels will be more expensive than normal. Most of them are using “dynamic pricing,” software that determines prices based on the season, availability, events and pricing of similar hotels.

It’s not the obscene price gouging the United States practices but it will be a bounce.

“Advice I would give people about accommodations for this coming year is to book well ahead,”  said Linda Martinez, who, with her husband, runs the Beehive, a popular hostel behind Termini train station, “especially if you are looking for something economical and/or with good reviews and this is even more critical if you are looking to stay near the Vatican.”

Allyn echoed Martinez, saying, “As soon as you know you’re going, get your hotels. Book your tours. Everything produces names on the tickets. They must have first and last names so have proper ID. It’s just the way tourism is. Don’t do it at the last minute.”

Allyn advises to avoid the four above churches during the specific Jubilee days. Also sign up online for the major tourist sites outside the Vatican such as the Colosseum, Forum and Borghese Museum. The waits were monstrous this year before the Jubilee even began.

Better yet, check out sites less trodden yet nearly as interesting. The Baths of Caracalla, two kilometers from the Colosseum, was the major bathhouse in the city 2,000 years ago. Ostia Antica, a 1-hour, 40-minute train ride from Roma Porta San Paolo station next to the Piramide Metro stop, has the well-preserved remains of a wealthy seaside town nearly as prosperous as Pompei without the everlasting fame from being buried in volcanic ash.

I worked briefly for Through Eternity Tours and they are one of the best companies in Rome. They offer not only tours of the four churches and a Jubilee tour but a mosaic tour and an In Depth Vatican Museum tour as well as customized tours.

“We have an evening walk,” Allyn said. “We offer one early in the morning so the places will really be less crowded. We are going to offer different things which is why we want to work hard at marketing and get people off the beaten path. People are more interested in that because the main sites are getting more and more crowded.”

Hassles

Thanks to the Italian government giving €530 million for the improvements, the city upgraded its Metro subway system for the first time in 100 years, updating 27 stations on Linea A. It put in two new stations on Linea C and bought 121 new trams. The track of my No. 8 tram, which I regularly use to go 10 minutes to Centro Storico, has been renovated and Rome plans on opening four new tram lines next year.

Linea A is finally open until 11:30 every night instead of 9 p.m. as it has for the past year.

However, Rome’s public transportation system remains, um, unreliable at best and riot worthy at worst. I don’t have a car. I get around by public transportation. But in 10 years in Rome, I can count on one hand the number of days I’ve gone where every bus arrived on time. 

I have been left waiting for 30 minutes to an hour at my regular bus stops, often hoofing it to my destination. Here is hoping the Jubilee inspires its drivers to actually drive instead of taking coffee breaks every couple of hours.

Traffic has already increased, partly due to the construction sites that remain. Parking? Don’t even THINK about renting a car.

“I believe Rome is doing the best it can under pretty impossible deadlines and with an enormous amount of projects,” Martinez texted me. “It’s been disappointing to some tourists and very inconvenient for residents with the city under a lot of scaffolding and construction and road works, but it’s all for the improvement of the city – not only for this Jubilee year but beyond.”

Buon Natale, tutti.