The 2025 Jubilee and what to expect

We are around three weeks into the 2025 Jubilee. While the first several days were a bit crazy, as one might expect in Rome, things are now starting to settle down. The lowest of the low season has begun, and Rome is currently empty. My first group is arriving in two days, and we have some exciting and new-to-me experiences planned.

First, an upcoming pilgrimage opportunity.

My Rhine River Cruise Pilgrimage, which initially sold out in 48 hours, now has a few available cabins. It’s common that people need to drop out of a pilgrimage, which is why it’s important to get on the waitlist if a trip you want is sold out. Anyway, I had several cabins open up, which you can book here. We have the whole boat. We have three amazing priests with us as well. It’s going to be great.

Now, on to the Jubilee…

Most estimates predict 30 - 39 million additional people will visit Rome during this Jubilee year. That’s on top of the typical number of tourists. I shared this previously, but just to put those numbers into perspective…

Rounding down, and pretending that the numbers will be evenly spread throughout the year (they won’t, we will have high and low seasons — right now Rome is empty), that’s around 700,000 additional people in Rome each week. For those familiar, a typical outdoor Wednesday Papal Audience has around 20,000 people (those are official numbers). Now imagine an extra 700,000 people. If you’ve ever been to Rome for Easter Sunday Mass, the biggest Papal Mass of the year, the official number of attendees is around 60,000.

Here’s a photo of an Easter Sunday Mass with 60,000 people in attendance. This is *only* 60,000 people, not the estimated 700,000 per week expected. Zoom in a look at all the people standing down the street.

The Vatican, of course, is planning to help with the extra visitors and so each month, additional Papal Audiences will take place on some Saturdays. They also did this during the 2016 Jubilee.

For those who have been herded through the Vatican Museums, they get around 30,000 visitors per day, in normal times.

Typical day in the Vatican Museums.

Now again, think about an extra 700,000 Catholics each week. That’s an additional 100,000 people trying to get through the Sistine Chapel each day. This is why I only do small group pilgrimages to Rome and do my best to get them private access, like I’m doing with my group next week.

To avoid disappointment, you should book your visits and tours well in advance this year.

By the way, I don’t share these numbers to scare you away, but to prepare you and help manage your expectations. I’ve had more than a few tour companies not happy about me doing that. 😂

The days between Christmas and Epiphany are always really busy here. And so the first week of the Jubilee saw 545,532 pilgrims pass through the Holy Doors of Saint Peter’s Basilica.

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw my daily visits to the Holy Door where I reported on how the line worked (or didn’t), what was not allowed (no reflex hammers 🤷🏻‍♂️), and if reservations were needed (no, but helpful). That’s all saved as a highlight on Insta, so you can check it out if you missed it.

The first few days were pretty hectic and at one point the line was rerouted into the grottos. I don’t know why. But it was a mess! I was in there. The only exit from the grottos is a tiny spiral staircase leading up into the basilica. So it took forever. People started to panic. And it even made the news here.

But now everything seems to be working. Not only is everything working, but things are well marked and relatively easy to understand.

I’ll be reporting on the Jubilee a lot this year, but some of the most common questions, I’ll cover here and now.

Do you need tickets / reservations for the four Holy Doors. No. The Holy Doors are the main doors now. Tour groups use them, random visitors use them, and pilgrims use them. What a reservation does get you, is more of a fast pass / skip the line sort of access. At Saint Peter’s Basilica, for example, they have a separate entrance into the piazza (right at the top) and a dedicated set of metal detectors. At Saint Mary Major, there are two security lines that lead to the same set of metal detectors, one for those with reservations, and one for everyone else.

How does one get reservations? The Jubilee website / app is well done. You register on the site, your passport is required, which might seem weird for some people. Once registered, you pick the doors you want and the time. I have noticed that even if it’s 9 AM on January 16th (or whatever date and time), you can register on the app as you walk up for that date and time. The times (at least for the last three weeks) do not fill up. So it’s less of a ticketed thing and more of a way for them to have an idea of how many people will be there during that hour. Also, the times are hourly. So if you sign up for the 9 AM hour, you can arrive any time during that hour.

At Saint Peter’s, I have observed (and tested) people showing up to the reserved entrance and just saying “Holy Door” and getting through. In some cases, the volunteers would then help the person register on the app, and in other cases, just wave the person through.

What about the Prayer Path? At Saint Peter’s, when you register for a time, you can either go straight to the entrance at the center of the piazza, or you can start all the way down in Piazza Pia near Castel Sant’Angelo. In Piazza Pia, Jubilee volunteers will gather groups of individuals, or private groups, and give them a large wooden cross.

They can then walk all the way down Conciliazione and pray. Once to the piazza, they still must go through security. The big advantage here is that once approaching the Holy Door, all other traffic is stopped, so you get a bit of a prayerful entrance. Otherwise, you are going through the doors with a large crowd of people.

Without a reservation, the entrance through the Holy Door can be crowded.

Ok. That’s it for now. Let me know if you have any questions about the jubilee and I’ll get to them in a future post.

Thanks!

— Mountain