How to avoid the crowds in Rome during the 2025 Jubilee

16.12.2024 - 15:05 / thepointsguy.com

For devout Catholics around the world, the countdown is on for the 2025 Jubilee in Rome. Occurring every 25 years since 1470, a Jubilee is an occasion for pilgrims to visit the religion's holiest sites and ask for forgiveness for their sins.

This means that Rome is shaping up to be more crowded than ever. Italy's National Tourist Research Institute estimates that 35 million visitors will descend on the Eternal City in 2025, and hotels are already selling out.

The Jubilee officially kicks off on Christmas Eve of this year, with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica, and will end on the holy day of the Epiphany, Jan. 6, 2026. The Holy Doors at Rome's three other papal basilicas — St. John in Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major — will also be opened. These Holy Doors, which will be opened ceremonially by Pope Francis, are actually bricked up and sealed between Jubilee years.

Pope Francis has declared this Jubilee the Year of Prayer, with Jubilee days for various groups, including workers, the disabled, the elderly and prisoners. There will also be concerts, conferences and other events.

In preparation for the influx of crowds, several restoration projects and infrastructure improvements have been in progress for the last few months. Cobblestones are being torn up and streets repaved. The Metro has been closing early for construction. Scaffolding currently covers up the Trevi Fountain, the angels on the St. Angelo Bridge and the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona.

"The center of Rome will be so crowded that they're going to charge people to visit the Trevi Fountain," says Elisa Valeria Bove, CEO of Roma Experience, a luxury tour operator.

Of the clients who have already booked tours with her for 2025, some are coming for the Jubilee and want to pass through the Holy Door, some are believers but haven't requested to pass through the door, and others are worried because they didn't know about the Jubilee.

"Planning ahead is the best way to orient oneself during a year when Rome will be full of tourists," she says. "Last-minute bookings will be impossible."

If you want to visit Rome next year — either for the Jubilee or despite it — here are some tips to remember.

The Vatican is always busy during holidays like Christmas and Easter, which certainly won't change during the Jubilee. But there are several Jubilee days, such as the Jubilee of Teenagers on April 25-27, that you might want to avoid as well. According to Bove, a million youths are expected then.

"It's a good idea to visit the Vatican outside of the dates when the pope will be present for events," says Bove, who has experienced two Jubilees, first as a tourist in 2000 and then as a tour guide in 2016, when