Meloni joins Gualtieri at opening of Piazza Pia on eve of Jubilee Year.

Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni inaugurated a newly-pedestrianised square and underpass near the Vatican on Monday as Rome completed its biggest infrastucture project for Jubilee Year.

The scheme, which involved digging a new tunnel to meet an existing underpass, saw the pedestrianisation of Piazza Pia which now links Castel S. Angelo to Via della Conciliazione and St Peter's Square.

The €85 million works were carried out by Italian road infrastructure company Anas and involved collaboration between the state, the capital, the Vatican and heritage authorities.

Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri said the project, unveiled on the eve of the Jubilee Year, was the result of a "powerful collective effort", adding: "Few believed in it but we did it."

Also present at the inauguration were the Vatican’s chief Jubilee organiser Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Italy's infrastructure minister Matteo Salvini, the Vatican's secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Lazio region governor Francesco Rocca.

The Piazza Pia project was completed on time, after 450 days of working round the clock, despite the discovery of the ruins of an ancient Roman laundry and a garden linked to Emperor Caligula.

"We put all the public and private entities involved around the same table" - Meloni said - "We can call it the 'Jubilee method' and it shows that things can be done well and quickly".

The opening of the underpasss will be an enormous relief to the city's drivers who have endured gridlock traffic in the Prati area for more than a year.

Gualtieri has been busy inaugurating newly-completed Jubilee works for days, in a flurry of ribbon-cutting around the capital, however he has described the Piazza Pia project as the "symbol" of the holy year.

Other major Jubilee projects completed in recent days include the redevelopment of Piazza Risorgimento and Via Ottaviano - both in the Prati area - while the next openings include Piazza San Giovanni on 28 December and Piazzale dei Cinquecento at Termini Station on 30 December.

The Jubilee Year, expected to attract upwards of 32 million pilgrims and tourists to the Eternal City, begins officially on Christmas Eve when Pope Francis opens the Holy Door at St Peter's.

Photo Anas