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In Rome tomorrow, Pope Francis will open St. Peter's Basilica and launch the Catholic Church's Holy year of 2025. It's not just any new year, it's a Jubilee year, usually observed every quarter century, a time when the Catholic Church focuses on forgiveness and hosts ceremonies for the faithful. And as Megan Williams reports, the city of Rome has begun getting ready.
MEGAN WILLIAMS, BYLINE: The sound of Rome gearing up for the Jubilee year 2025, incessant drilling, gridlock traffic and maddening transit detours.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORNS BLARING)
WILLIAMS: With all at once, 300 monuments, piazzas and pedestrian zones under construction, readying Rome for more than 30 million pilgrims and tourists expected here next year.
MATO MORELLI: (Speaking Italian).
WILLIAMS: "It's a tragic time for us Romans," says lawyer Mato Morelli (ph). "Let's just hope they finish the new pedestrian zone near the Vatican in time."
MORELLI: (Speaking Italian).
SANDRO CALEFFI: (Speaking Italian).
WILLIAMS: Dentist Sandro Caleffi (ph) says he hears constant complaints that France rebuilt Notre Dame Cathedral in just five years after the fire, but that Rome can't add a subway stop in less than 10. But he says he's confident the city will soon be more functional - and beautiful.
CALEFFI: (Speaking Italian).
ROBERTO GUALTIERI: (Speaking Italian).
WILLIAMS: Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri says he's very satisfied with progress of the city's $5 billion overhaul. Gualtieri says most of the improvements are near completion.
GUALTIERI: (Speaking Italian).
WILLIAMS: "We call the project Next Generation Rome, in keeping with the values of the Jubilee, with great attention to the environment and accessibility for everyone."
This weekend, the freshly renovated Trevi Fountain was unveiled and today, an improved and expanded pedestrian access to the Vatican opens. In the celebrated Piazza Navona, scaffolding has also come off the 17th century Four Rivers Fountain, now stripped of grime and gleaming like it did 400 years ago. That's when it was designed and sculpted by famed artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini for the Holy Year of 1650, but like much of the work today, was late in completion. Megan Williams, NPR News, Rome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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