Autumnal inconveniences and the imminent Jubilee

All photos taken over the last couple of weeks

Roma, Caput Mundi. Immodesty is not one of Rome’s flaws.

On Christmas Eve the celebrations of the Jubilee year of the Roman Catholic Church will begin and will continue throughout 2025 (here’s a list of events). If you’re curious about what a Jubilee year is take a look at my post here. It will be a big deal, and if my hazy recollections of 2000, the year I moved to Rome, are anything to go by the city will be even busier than usual. There has been something of a scramble in recent months to complete preparations for 2025 and the result is that much of central Rome appears to be hosting a festival of scaffolding, and there are roadworks galore. The interminable Metro works at piazza Venezia and around the Colosseum are a constant, and aren’t even planned to be completed by the end of the year.

Holy Door, Santa Maria Maggiore

I was reminded of my second visit to Rome on a university class trip in 1998 when preparations for 2000 meant the city was shrouded in scaffolding and dust. Our lecturer had attempted to teach us assorted phrases, once of which was mi sa dire dove si trova …? (can you tell me the way to…?), a politely archaic construction I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone use. Because we were twenty years old and effervescently irritating, my pals and I chortled as we walked the length and breadth of the city which was preparing for the Jubilee of 2000 (which given all of those zeros was particularly important). Mi sa dire dove si trova la chiesa chiusa in impalcatura? we chanted amongst ourselves, breathless with the enormity of our scintillating wit: “Can you tell me the way to the closed church under scaffolding”.

The scale of restoration this time round is, I think, less invasive though to avoid frustration I’d recommend being prepared or entirely steering clear of certain areas. After all Rome has no shortage of extraordinary places, and where the work is unavoidable my advice is to take it philosophically: after all preparations for pilgrims are nothing new, this too is part of Rome’s rich history.

With a bit of planning a visit to Rome before the works are scheduled to finish by Christmas Eve (92 days away and counting, will they make it?) needn’t be a cavalcade of building sites so if you’re in town this autumn here are some thoughts and some of the areas where work is particularly intense at present:

The Vatican

Piazza San Pietro, 9.30 am last week. Not pictured: the queue for security snaking around the entire piazza behind me. My advice is to go 5.30/6pm and ideally avoid weekends. Our secret, right?

Obviously the Vatican will be the hub of the Jubilee and at present major roadworks at both piazza Pia, by the Castel Sant’Angelo, in piazza Risorgimento, by the Vatican Museum entrance, and on via Ottaviano which have led to bus diversions and road closures. If using public transport Google maps or similar will have the latest details and give you the best available route.

There are also building works taking place at Ottaviano metro station, and though after work this summer it has reopened, if going to the Vatican Museums Cipro is the preferable station at the moment.

Inside St Peter’s Basilica: scaffolding has shrouded Bernini’s Baldacchino for months, so that’s off-limits, as is the Pietà while the protective glass of the chapel is replaced, scheduled to be completed by the end of this month.

Castel Sant’Angelo

The pedestrianisation of piazza Pia between the Castel Sant’Angelo and St Peter’s Basilica makes negotiating the area a little tricky at present and the Ponte Sant’Angelo is also closed for restoration. My advice is to approach St Peter’s from the Borgo Santo Spirito side to avoid crowded, tight and circuitous routes around hoardings.

Piazza Navona

All three fountains are being restored, my advice is simply to save yourself frustration and go and look at something else instead. For example pop into the perpetually under-visited Sant’ Agostino in Campo Marzio to admire Caravaggio’s Madonna of the Pilgrims and remind yourself what all that scaffolding is about in the first place.

Mid-morning Caravaggio without the crowds. Sant’Agostino in Campo Marzio.

Piazza della Rotonda

The Pantheon itself is blissfully unencumbered by scaffolding so do visit it. However the fountain in front of it is off limits, rather impeding the view of the portico and hordes of people in the reduced space of the piazza can swiftly become tiresome. Once you’ve been inside, pop round the corner instead to piazza della Minerva to look at Bernini’s witty elephant and obelisk combo, and admire the Pantheon’s dome from behind and in peace.

Saint John in Lateran

The piazza in front of the Cathedral church of Rome, the Mother Church of all of the Catholic World, is an unlovely building site at the moment (recent work has been slowed by the unearthing of traces of the medieval papal palace), but the facade and interior are unencumbered, outside a Jubilee year under-visited, and always glorious. Go and have a look, and while you’re there make a foray to nearby Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

St John in Lateran last Friday. Rome’s cathedral is absurdly under-visited outside of Jubilee years.

Where to go instead:

In no particular order here are a few other places which spring to mind that you may like to visit when the crowds and building works become a little tiresome. The list is inexhaustible.

Ara Pacis, a great triumph of Augustan propaganda and never busy. This was last Saturday afternoon c.4pm. Here’s my podcast episode about it.

Not under scaffolding, glorious, and never crowded. Fountain of the Turtles, Piazza Mattei.

Twentieth century totalitarian rhetoric at EUR, “Colosseo Quadrato”

Palatine Hill, part of the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo. Always glorious, never crowded as long as you avoid the Arch of Titus entrance

Ostia Antica, bucolic and magnificent

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (ok the entrance to this courtyard is covered in scaffolding at present but it’s swiftly ignored!). Here’s a link to a post I wrote about its hidden treasure.

Santo Stefano Rotondo

Roman houses under Ss Giovanni e Paolo al Celio

Those are just a few of the amazing, not busy, and un-scaffolded places I’ve taken photos of during tours over the past couple of weeks. Even in the run up to a Jubilee (or, indeed, during) my tenet stands: there is no bad time to visit Rome, just bad ways of doing it!