Pope Francis announced the plan for a Jubilee in 2025 in a letter to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, including an invitation to young people to make a pilgrimage to Rome. An invitation he sent out to everyone at the closing Mass of World Youth Day in Lisbon, 2023.
Italian authorities went to work preparing a plan of action to get the entire city ready for this international meeting.
“It is a moment of extraordinary importance that gives us, as the Italian state and as the city of Rome, a great responsibility to support and to help this event with all our commitment and all our strength,” said the Governor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri at the beginning of 2023.
With a budget of almost two billion dollars, the city of Rome launched a renovation plan with a total of 335 projects, ranging from major works to minor street improvements.
“Essential and open-ended works are planned, but they are practical projects, as I said before. The tunnel under Piazza Pia and the upgrading of the Gregorio VII tunnel. There are also significant works from the point of view of reception,” Alfredo Mantovan, Under-Secretary of the presidency council of ministers.
Bulldozers and streets blocked off are a common sight throughout the city and they will affect tourists who visit the Eternal City in the months leading up to the Jubilee.
Rome’s city council maintains despite this type of work usually taking many years to complete, they are breaking records in terms of time and that everything will be ready by 2025.
However Rome has several challenges to face before 2025. First, it will have to complete the planned works and create infrastructure to accommodate pilgrims traveling to the Italian capital.
Additionally, the city will have to address the current situation of the tourism sector, where many downtown apartments are being converted into short-stay apartments. Many of them without being legally regulated—something that is likely to affect hotels and the Roman residents themselves.
Rome must also take into account the security of the city, above all, at strategic points, such as train stations, subways and airports. All this ahead of the estimated 50 million pilgrims expected to pass through Rome in 2025.
