Excavators digging up the road and heavy traffic at the start of one of Rome's most iconic streets. This is what tourists passing through Piazza Pia, the road that runs from Castel Sant'Angelo to the Vatican, are currently seeing.
All this is the result of the construction work launched by the City of Rome in preparation for the Jubilee of 2025. The mayor of the city, Roberto Gualtieri, guarantees that everything will be ready on schedule.
ROBERTO GUALTIERI
Mayor of Rome
I think we are really breaking records. It's a record that everything started in January with a government decree and we already have a construction site. Normally, in this city but also all over Italy, it takes years between the start and this point. But here we are a few months in and we have managed to open the construction site. Now we have a roadmap that continues and allows us to say that it will be completed on time—meaning before the Jubilee.
The aim is to make the area, which until now has been used by vehicles, completely pedestrianized. But this is no easy task. In order for future pilgrims to cross this street, a tunnel is being built for cars to pass under the pedestrian walkway.
ROBERTO GUALTIERI
Mayor of Rome
It is not simply an underpass, which is already a challenging work. But it is an underpass involving the relocation of one of the largest and strongest sewers in the city. So, it is really a masterpiece of engineering.
More than 35 million people are expected to travel to the Eternal City during the 2025 Jubilee. Making Piazza Pia more accesible for pedestrians in the Vatican area will cost more than 75 million dollars.
CA
TR: KG
