Rome prepares for Catholic Church Jubilee tourists surge

ROME — Roman drivers finally got some relief Monday when, after 450 days of traffic chaos and unprintable curses, a ribbon-cutting ceremony heralded the opening of an underpass along the Tiber River near the Vatican that immediately cleared traffic from what is now Rome’s largest pedestrian area.

The new underpass is part of the makeover Rome is undergoing as it readies for the 32 million visitors the Vatican expects in 2025 for the Roman Catholic Church Jubilee — a year of faith, penance, and forgiveness of sins that takes place every quarter-century.

Romans have conflicting feelings about the Jubilee, which began Tuesday evening when Pope Francis solemnly opened the Holy Door in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica and passed through, followed by the first of the pilgrims.

“It’s a miracle” that so many public works have been completed, said Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri.

“It’s been an ordeal,” said Martina Battista, 23, a medical student in Rome who was evicted from her apartment because her landlord wanted to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast for the Jubilee.

Gualtieri said that the Jubilee was a great opportunity to refurbish Rome and turn it into a greener, more inclusive city, with hundreds of projects planned. But if Gualtieri and Vatican officials have spent the better part of December at a flurry of inaugurations of spruced-up monuments, repaved streets, and new pedestrian piazzas — the upside of the holy year — the surge in pilgrims is expected to take a toll.

Construction sites for Jubilee works have left key parts of Rome bruised by detours, leading to interminable traffic jams and very grumpy citizens.

Rome has already been struggling to balance the needs of its 2.75 million residents with serving the more than 21 million tourists who passed through this year. The impact has been highest on the housing market, especially in the historic center, where many landlords have switched from multiyear leases to more profitable short rentals via platforms like Airbnb. Transportation, prices for basic goods, and even garbage collection have also been affected, critics say.

Battista said her frantic search for another place not far from the city center took five months. She now pays double what she did before.

Not so long ago, Rome stood out among Western Europe’s capitals as relatively affordable. But with the Jubilee looming, rental prices increased up to 20% in a year in some areas, and the stock of available rentals dropped by up to 35%, according to Idealista, an online real estate platform.

“It’s been really difficult,” Battista said.

On Rome’s upscale Via del Corso, as tourists shopped amid the marble and Christmas lights, Anwar Hossain, 33, was selling miniature Colosseums and plastic Roman soldiers at a kiosk. Originally from Bangladesh, he has been living in Rome for about 14 years, but now, for the first time, he is afraid he will end up on the street. His landlord has refused to renew his lease for his home in the Prati neighborhood, close to the Vatican, and he has been unable to find a new one.

“The Jubilee ruined many families like mine,” he said.

For many Romans, already priced out of the center and exasperated with the hordes of tourists stalking flashy new limoncello and tiramisu stores, the imminent Jubilee seems a last blow to a city many struggle to recognize.

In the Piazza Navona neighborhood, many streets are named for the professions that were once concentrated there: Baullari for suitcase makers; Cappellari for hats; and Sediari for chairs. Now the area is a hub of souvenir shops, cafes, and restaurants thronged by tourists who form long lines as they wait to photograph themselves eating pasta al cacio e pepe, a popular Roman dish.

Rome has been beloved by visitors for centuries for its art and monuments and also its promise of a la dolce vita lifestyle. But the recent surge in visitors, and preparations for still more, is altering the city’s feel. “It’s not the city that changes the tourist, it is the tourist who changes the city, that is the paradox,” said Michele Campisi, the national president of the heritage group Italia Nostra.

The city government is aware of the challenges the Jubilee poses, but the mayor said it was not their choice to have millions more people come to the city.

“The Jubilee is not a policy choice, it’s been around since 1300,” Gualtieri said in an interview. “It exists, so the question becomes how do you handle it.”

In the months leading up to the Jubilee, Monica Lucarelli, the city official responsible for commerce, set up a board with representatives of the hotel, restaurant, and retail trade associations, tasked with monitoring any “excessive” increase in prices linked to the celebration.

“We want them to raise awareness among their members not to exploit” the influx of tourists “in an incorrect way,” Lucarelli said. Still, she added, Italy is “a free-market economy” and little can be done against transgressors unless laws are broken. Besides, Rome remains “one of Europe’s least expensive capitals,” she said.

In the Esquilino neighborhood near Rome’s Termini train station, complaints about rising prices are joined by concerns about increased crime linked to the Jubilee, especially since many of the pilgrims are expected to arrive by train and stay in the neighborhood.

Security measures in the neighborhood — where petty crime is already an issue — consist mostly of periodic police sweeps that remove criminals from the streets for a few hours, Carmen Trimarchi, vice president of Luce Sia Esquilino resident’s association, complained. The influx of pilgrims “poses a real problem,” she added. “We’re very worried.”

Gualtieri told reporters last week that Jubilee funds had been allocated to buy new security equipment and pay for more officers. “Security will be very robust,” he said. Artificial intelligence is being used via security cameras linked to a control room to better monitor the city in real-time, he added.

But some locals are already complaining about too much security linked to the Jubilee.

Shopkeepers of the Borgo Pio neighborhood fear that some of the measures put in place to better manage pilgrims, such as traffic and pedestrian barriers, will further impact business, which they say has already suffered because of two years of nearly uninterrupted construction.

“We’ve already had to endure this,” meaning the Jubilee construction, said Francesco Ceravolo, the president of Assoborgo, which represents some 100 businesses — mostly restaurants and bars — in the neighborhood.

Earlier this year, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Vatican official in charge of the Jubilee, admitted that Romans might be “suffering a little,” but he said the result would be a more livable city. And a more ecologically sound one too.

Walking down the avenue leading to the Vatican on Monday, Fisichella said that after two years of preparations, “the moment” had come. “Rome is ready to welcome the pilgrims,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.