On Dec. 23, Rome inaugurated a new pedestrian area and walkway connecting the city’s historic center to the Vatican in what Mayor Roberto Gualtieri called “the most important among the construction projects carried out on the occasion of the Jubilee of Hope.”

The remodeled public space at the end of the famous Via della Conciliazione is just one of hundreds of improvements to Rome that were planned in conjunction with the Jubilee Year, which began on Dec. 24 and will conclude during the Christmas season 2025.

“Rome Is Transforming” is the surprising slogan chosen for renovations and restorations to a city with a reputation for moving on an “eternal” timetable. The tagline — “the Eternal City changes forever” — also echoes the hopefulness at the center of the 2025 Jubilee.

The ambitious undertaking at Piazza Pia in front of the Vatican converted one of the area’s busiest roads — where an estimated 3,000 cars travel per hour — to an underpass, allowing tourists and pilgrims to walk freely in the space from Castel Sant’Angelo down to St. Peter’s Basilica. 

The new underground road connects to an existing underpass built 25 years ago for the last ordinary jubilee, the Great Jubilee of 2000. 

The public square at Piazza Pia, which can hold up to 150,000 people, cost Rome 85.3 million euros (around $89 million) and features benches and trees, as well as two large, round fountains. It is now the largest pedestrian-only area in Rome.

In a reel posted to his Instagram page after Christmas, the city’s mayor said workers were in “a real and proper race against time” to finish the 16-month project before Pope Francis opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, inaugurating the 2025 Jubilee, on the night of Dec. 24.

“Few believed us, but we did it,” Gualtieri announced to his 112,000 followers.

In fact, the final days of 2024 saw the completion of several infrastructure developments on time or even ahead of schedule, despite several excavations having turned up ancient artifacts and, in one case, even a human skeleton dating from the 17th or 18th century.

Rome’s financial police also carried out several searches this fall for suspected corruption, including bribery, bid rigging and fraud allegedly involving five public officials — an unsurprising possibility, given the city’s extraordinary budget for Jubilee improvement projects: 4.8 billion euros ($5 billion).

And while the money is earmarked for the Jubilee Year, still, many initiatives are expected to continue into 2025 or even 2026, including the completion of renovations in the area around Rome’s major Termini Train Station.

Of some 600 total projects, 204 were designated “essential,” and as of the start of 2025, a significant portion of the prioritized renovations are finished or nearly done.

Visitors to the Eternal City in 2025, for example, will be able to see many of Rome’s ornamental fountains — including its most famous, the grand Trevi Fountain — restored to their former brilliance in time for the Jubilee.

After fencing obscured them from view during most of 2024, Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers, as well as the Neptune Fountain and Fontana del Moro, in the famous Piazza Navona, and many others, were recently revealed in their new, shining glory.

On Dec. 29, Cardinal Baldassare Reina opened one of the Jubilee’s five Holy Doors, at Rome’s cathedral, the papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. 

Just one day prior, the substantial square in front of the archbasilica — now with ground-level fountains for summer-heat mitigation — was reopened after its own renovation, though the work on the space and adjoining areas is not expected to be 100% finished until February.

Another renewed space close to Vatican City, completed in the nick of time, was Ottaviano Street and Risorgimento Square, both of which received a much-needed face lift. 

The square and street, located to the north of the Vatican walls in between St. Peter’s Square and the entrance to the Vatican Museums, are some of the first things people see after emerging from the subway stop closest to the Vatican.

The flow of Rome’s intense traffic was modified for the project, enlarging the no-car area by 23% to better accommodate the expected 32 million pilgrims for the Jubilee of Hope.

In addition to new pavement, the space now includes public bathrooms, information kiosks and structures for refilling water bottles and charging phones.

Not all of the Jubilee renovations are focused on just easing the stay of visitors, however.

Some of the projects in the “Rome Is Transforming” plan are improvements that will benefit locals, too, such as a new bicycle path connecting the area south of the Vatican to an existing walkway in Monte Ciocci Park, which overlooks St. Peter’s Basilica from a hill on the Vatican’s western side.

 The work on the bicycle path, which is projected to cost 6.7 million euros ($6.9 million), will begin in 2025.

The pedestrian-and-biking path along the banks of the Tiber River is also in the process of being improved, with an expected reopening in early 2025.

Some smaller upgrades to the Eternal City for the Jubilee include the re-pavement of streets, updated street lighting and new buses and trams. The closest train stop to the Vatican, “St. Peter’s Station,” was also given a fresh look, and work is currently underway to improve a pedestrian bridge and path connecting the station to the Vatican basilica in just over half a mile on foot.

On a website detailing the many Jubilee projects, Rome’s mayor appealed to the city’s residents weary from lengthy road closures and construction sites, saying that “without worksites there would be no disruption today, but no better future tomorrow either.” 

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Pope’s delegate for the Jubilee 2025 organization, said at a presentation of the Piazza Pia project in summer 2023 that “the constant and daily collaboration” between the Vatican and city of Rome in the infrastructure developments would help make the Holy Year “a moment of great welcome for the many pilgrims who will come.

Gualtieri said at the same press conference, “The Jubilee is a great opportunity to change and improve the city.”