Preparing for Holy Year 2025- Part I

Practical advice from a 1975 volunteer guide

The streets, piazze and even the train routes leading into Rome are in complete upheaval as the city races to get a myriad of construction works completed in time for the inauguration of the 2025 Jubilee Year.

In the late 1960s and 70s I lived in Rome, to the right of where this photo was taken -between Castel Sant’Angelo and Michelangelo’s dome. St. Peter’s Basilica was my parish church. The neighborhoods bordering on the Vatican -Borgo Pio and Prati- were full of pilgrim groups and brightly dressed bishops and cardinals from around the world during Holy Year 1975. How very different things are today as long lines, security issues and construction works are the rule, rather than the exception.

the official poster for Holy Year 1975

Living so close and having free time on weekends, I became a volunteer for the English Language Service guiding pilgrims and visitors in the Basilica and creating audio-visual materials and brochures. We volunteers attended seminars organized by the Vatican throughout 1974 with professors, including Prof. Margherita Guarducci, the archeologist who discovered the bones of St. Peter in the crypt deep underground directly beneath Bernini’s magnificent canopy/baldacchino.

Carlo Galassi Paluzzi “La Basilica di San Pietro”

The fact that I am still here in Italy and can give advice to visitors coming to Rome for the Jubilee Year of 2025 makes me very happy! Thanks to modern technology, the books we studied - like this 500 page tome with thousands of illustrations and maps- has become obsolete and now collects dust in my library. Today’s Holy Year pilgrims can listen to Voicemap tours such as this one created by an equipe of 5 specialists of the different sections of the Vatican Museums .

(click on underlined links to access the info)

If you prefer a personal guided tour, check out the website of Theresa Potenza, one of these specialists . She is shown here on the left with a group at the Vatican mosaics workshop.

I also recommend two iconic guidebooks for in-depth information and lots of illustrations. A few hours of study and preparation before your arrival in Rome will be invaluable for planning daily itineraries in and around Rome.

I contributed to “Eyewitness guide to Rome” in 1990 and many articles on the local English language press. Georgina Masson’s iconic “Companion Guide to Rome” 1965 edition

Many people who already know Rome are deciding to stay outside the city and do day trips by train from nearby smaller towns like Bracciano on the lake of the same name (40 minutes to the Vatican train station) or even the other papal city, Viterbo where there is a quieter and less expensive lifestyle.

train station at St. Peter’s

Holy Year Curiosity: bricks used to close up the Holy Door until the next Holy Year

Top: Holy Door brick in presentation box and letter, (my collection) Bottom: bricks from previous Holy Years, silver hammer and trowel used by popes to open the Holy Door, Vatican Museums

More information about Vatican City State, the world’s smallest country, coming in next week’s article. Subscribe now so you don’t miss it.

Do you recognize these 9 places inside Vatican? Let me know. Answers next week. Prize for the first person who successfully identifies them!!