Rome Jubilee year: A polished city, but where are the pilgrims?

Euronews

21-06-2025

Jubilee.
A word that, despite its jovial ring, has sent shivers down the spine of any Roman for whom it became a shorthand for unaffordable rent, skyrocketing inflation, innumerable roadworks and hordes of pilgrims adding to the Eternal City's already unmanageable tourist throngs.
The Catholic Church's Jubilee — a year-long religious observation held from late 2024 to 2025 and every quarter of a century in the Italian capital — triggered an ambitious series of public beautification plans, spearheaded by Rome's social media-savvy mayor, Roberto Gualtieri.
It also came with the promise of over 30 million pilgrims descending upon the city.
Landlords and businesses had high hopes, especially following the pandemic downturn, but it became notoriously unpopular among renters, students and young professionals who feared a worsening cost-of-living crisis in a city (and country) known for salary stagnation and meagre employment opportunities.
Midway into the Jubilee celebrations, Rome looks pristine. Its roads and buildings have been renovated, and the visitor numbers seem strong.
But did it bring the heralded and feared Jubilee holiday rental boom? Or has it turned into a bust? The stats seem to show a rather underwhelming picture.
The Jubilee: What's the hype?
Every 25 years (bar additional 'extraordinary' occasions), the Jubilee is held by the Roman Catholic Church as a period of forgiveness.
Pilgrims visit Rome, the centre of Catholicism, as part of a spiritual journey towards plenary indulgence, or the full remission of sins. They pass through the Holy Doors of the city's four papal basilicas, which are only open in Jubilee years.
Recent Jubilees have typically been associated with a burst in Rome's tourist economy and major public improvement works. Especially the 2000 Jubilee, which resulted in many of the city's soot-covered landmarks being restored to their former glory.
The 2025 Jubilee has been no exception, as many of Rome's most iconic monuments - from the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona to the Spanish Steps and the bridge of Castel Sant'Angelo - were given a facelift.
But the latest Jubilee was presented with an unprecedented issue: the Airbnb and holiday rental industry, which has already been blamed for suffocating the renting market and contributing to a worsening housing crisis.
As debates on overtourism and its impact became a hot-button issue in Europe following the 2020s post-pandemic boom, many Romans were concerned about the impact the Jubilee would have, especially as the hype surrounding it led to soaring inflation starting as early as 2023.
Giulio, a 32-year-old doctor, was one such individual who struggled to find a place to live after leaving his flat in February this year. He eventually had to relocate to a distant neighbourhood.
'I searched desperately for a [house to] rent that was not exorbitantly priced,' Giulio tells Euronews Travel. 'But I discovered that the neighbourhood in which I work – near St Peter's – has become practically inaccessible to renters, since everything has been used for holiday rentals.'
'The renting situation is truly tragic,' he says.
'No difference from usual'
Reports leading up to 2025 suggested around 30 to 35 million pilgrims would flock to Rome, adding to a total of around 105 million visitors. That would be an unprecedented number for the Italian capital, even surpassing the new millennium Jubilee 25 years ago.
But early statistics from this year suggest the numbers may not be quite as encouraging, as reports show only a few million pilgrims have come to the city since the start of the year.
The death of Pope Francis and the election of a new Pope, Leo XIV, back in April-May may have provided a boost, but the pulse on the ground has not suggested any dramatic upsurge in tourist arrivals.
A quick conversation with local retailers, restaurateurs, taxi drivers and others in the hospitality sector is all it takes to pick up on the rather underwhelming fruits of the Jubilee's labours.
Federico Ndoj, who runs a well-known English-speaking hair salon near the Spanish Steps, with an exclusive array of international clients including American actress Jane Fonda, is among the local business owners disillusioned by the Jubilee's grand promises.
'The peak tourist season is upon us, so there are a lot of people coming,' he tells Euronews Travel. 'But nothing more than usual.'
'I think this whole Jubilee thing was hyped up to make money,' he adds.
'An underwhelming start', but can things pick up?
One of Italy's biggest estate agencies, Tecnocasa, is one of the many that have reported an underwhelming start to 2025, citing an 8-10 per cent drop in holiday rentals in the first quarter of the year.
'An oversupply of properties intended for tourism means not all have been rented out, and some owners are now considering switching back to residential leases or selling,' Fabiana Megliola said in an official statement released by Tecnocasa.
Raffaele de Paola, a Roman real estate entrepreneur affiliated with Tecnocasa, confirmed the letdown of early Jubilee results, blaming two things: the wanton optimism of landlords and the accommodation preferences of pilgrims themselves.
'We entered 2025 with rosy projections,' he remarks. 'But after the first six months, things haven't gone as hoped.'
'The problem is many [landlords] were hoping to strike gold with short-term rentals,' he adds. 'But as with all things, if you don't dedicate yourself and commit, things don't work, as they take time and effort. Many who rented out their homes or even bought property as an investment are now deciding to return to the long-term rental models.'
De Paola says, 'Pilgrims didn't go to Airbnbs, they went to convents or even hotels outside the city. And many tourists, after hearing about the Jubilee, decided not to come.'
But his forecasts aren't entirely negative - he claims the summer trends are boding well for a successful end to the year.
'[Holiday rentals] are recovering in this second semester,' he claims. 'Things have been a success, especially since the election of the new Pope.'
With an office near St Peter's, de Paola says he can predict the strength of any given tourist season merely by looking at the queue outside the Vatican Museums. At times, it's so long it extends beyond his building, 400m away from the museum entrance.
'Things are going well now,' he stated. 'We are on course for a strong end of the year.'
'A disaster - and the end of the Airbnb trend'
Rosanna De Bonis, the head of SoloAffitti, one of Italy's top rental agencies, paints a less optimistic picture for holiday rentals - and notes how the Jubilee could shake up the renting market.
'The results have been a disaster,' she tells Euronews Travel.
De Bonis paints a picture of desperate landlords dealing with countless cancellations, forced to drop their daily rates and backtracking to residential leases.
'The Jubilee sold false hopes,' she says. 'People thought they were landing the bargain of a lifetime, but they pinned their hopes on pilgrims who never came. I even had clients in the city centre who had to cut their rates to €100 a night.'
'At the end of the day, long-term rentals provide a kind of stability holiday rentals do not,' she added.
More crucially, De Bonis believes that the disappointing results of the Jubilee could herald the beginning of the end of the renting market's growing turn to Airbnbs, pulling the breaks on a worldwide trend which has been accused of turning cities into tourist playgrounds.
'The holiday rental trend has reached its peak,' she states.
'Romans get bored quickly - either they see immediate results, or nothing,' she added. 'And now that the results aren't there, more and more landlords want to return back to the former residential model.'