Rome dresses up for the 2025 Jubilee
3 minutes
The 2025 Jubilee officially opened with the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, and the ever welcoming and inclusive Rome has been animated by a buzz that has infected the entire city.
Urban redevelopments, restorations and road works from the centre to the suburbs will help millions of pilgrims and tourists traveling to the city in future years.
Let’s discover the key locations of the 2025 Jubilee.
Termini Station, the gateway to the City
Whether you reach Rome by plane or train, your first “encounter” with the city will take place in the monumental Termini Station overlooking Piazza dei Cinquecento. Delimited by the ancient Servian Walls, by late 19th-century palazzos and by the Baths of Diocletian, this large square is your first introduction to the history and splendour of Rome. With its new face lift, this important space, featuring new flooring and green areas, leads to the taxi rank and bus terminal, where your journey through the Eternal City really begins.
Saint Peter’s Basilica, the focus of the Jubilee
The majestic dome of St. Peter’s appears on the horizon, forming an iconic landmark in Rome’s skyline. A symbol of Christianity, and a masterpiece of architecture and art, every year the basilica receives millions of visitors and pilgrims, enchanted by its stunning beauty.
If you arrive by train at the station of Roma San Pietro, you can reach the basilica through the “Passeggiata del Gelsomino”, a romantic pedestrian route that connects the station, through the pedestrian underpass of Via Gregorio VII, to Piazza di Porta Cavalleggeri, with a wonderful view of the dome and colonnade.
You can admire another magnificent view of the colonnade upon arriving by metro line A and walking along Via Ottaviano and Piazza Risorgimento. But you’ll get the greatest thrill if you reach San Pietro from the city, crossing the monumental Ponte Sant’Angelo. The pedestrianisation of Piazza Pia offers a wonderful view of Via della Conciliazione and the basilica, allowing pilgrims and citizens alike to enjoy one of the city’s most evocative attractions.
San Giovanni in Laterano and San Paolo Fuori le Mura, the Church opens to the city
You will be enchanted by the monumental basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, even if you just admire its imposing façade. Situated between the Holy Stairs, the Triclinium Leoninum and the nearby Aurelian Walls, the basilica stands in a large square whose decorations echo the geometries of the Cosmatesque floor of the oldest basilica in Rome, and serves as a link between the church and the city: a public space from which to admire the surrounding historical and archaeological landscape.
Just a few kilometres away from San Giovanni in Laterano stands another important Roman attraction, San Paolo fuori le Mura, on the ancient Via Ostiensis.
As you approach the basilica, you will be impressed by its white complex set against the green of the large surrounding park. This renovated, flexible space, rich in nature, art and history, welcomes pilgrims, citizens and all those who visit this uniquely beautiful green area every day.
Rome, the city of monumental fountains
A symbol of rebirth and life, water has always been an important element for man’s life and spirituality.
The Romans have left us a rich network of aqueducts that continue to feed the many fountains that enrich the city. What tourist has not enjoyed the fresh waters of the well-known Fontana della Barcaccia in Piazza di Spagna?
The fountains in Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore and San Giovanni in Laterano are both fed by the Acquedotto Felice, which runs along Via Merulana, creating an axis that joins the two Papal Basilicas, following the path of ancient Roman processions.
As every tourist knows, no visitor can leave Rome without making two iconic, and perhaps slightly superstitious gestures: proving their sincerity by putting their hand in the Mouth of Truth in the portico of the Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, and throwing a coin into Trevi Fountain in the hopes of one day returning to the city. Gestures of pleasure and expectation that have as their background two monuments - the Fountain of the Tritons and the Trevi Fountain - that are sure to remain in the hearts of anyone strolling, even absent-mindedly, through the streets of the Eternal City.
