In 1300 Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the first ordinary Jubilee or Holy Year, with the Papal Bull, “Antiquorum Habet Fida Relatio.” Since then, they have taken place either every 50 or every 25 years. 2025’s Holy Year is the 27th. It will begin on Christmas Eve 2024 and last through Epiphany or January 6, 2026. If you still need to organize your pilgrimage to Rome, the principal venue, and to other religiously significant places elsewhere in Italy, here are three unbeatable websites.
For accommodations click on www.ospitalitareligiosa.it. This non-profit Association Ospitalità Religiosa Italiana (Italian Religious Hospitality) at Via Molina 10 in Varese, a city in Lombardy, northwest of Milan, tel. 011-39-327-3842841, describes 2,965 “religious places to stay” in Italy. These include guesthouses, holiday houses, B&Bs, campsites, hostels, hermitages, convents, monasteries and hotels.
Only Italy is home to so many possibilities and no other website offers such extensive information about “religious” hospitality. The Association’s multi-lingual (Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German) state-of-the-art website organizes its entries by type of accommodation and by location. To start, choose your language, then click on Location (first the region and then the specific place), followed by the type of accommodation you want. Each entry has a photograph and icons of all the services it offers, as well as description of nearby transportation and tourist attractions. Most “stays” include breakfast and wi-fi and accept credit cards.
Accommodations are found in all 20 regions of Italy, with the largest number, some 197, logically in Lazio, with 123 of these in the Eternal City. Several are within walking distance of Vatican City. Of the 123 sites in Rome, 13 are hotels all with restaurants, and conference rooms and often with chapels, free parking and spacious gardens: San Giuseppe House, Hotel Valle, Hotel Antico Palazzo Rospigliosi, Domus Australia, Hotel Adriatico, Casa Fraterna Domus, Hotel Varese, Casa Madre Nazarena, Hotel Nova Domus Aurelia, Villa EUR, Hotel Casa Tra Noi, Hotel Santa Prisca, and DNB House Hotel. San Giuseppe House, Hotel Adriatico, Hotel Nova Domus Aurelia, and Hotel Casa Tra Noi are all short walks to St. Peter’s Square.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization has chosen “My Safe Place Transfer” as the Vatican’s Official Taxi and Transfer Partner during 2025’s Holy Year. Its shared mobility service seeks to reduce travel costs and traffic especially when it comes to transfers to and from Rome’s airport, a ride that usually costs 50 euros not counting luggage and tips. “My Safe Place Transfer” charges 14.99 euros per person for religious and 19.90 euros per person for pilgrims. This door-to-door service, payable via Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and debit cards, as well as cash, is available Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 8 PM and 8 AM to 5 PM on Saturday and Sunday.
To be eligible you must download: www.mysafeplace.it. It’s already accepting bookings if you’re registered on the official Jubilee App: www.register.iubilaeum2025.va. In addition to the airport transfer, “My Safe Place Transfer” can meet cruise ship passengers at Civitavecchia and offers transportation to Assisi, San Giovanni Rotondo, and Padua at negotiable prices so you may want to check out accommodations on www.ospitalitareligiosa.it in these locations as well. The service to travel outside of Rome is available 24 hours a day and every day of the week.
To book specific Jubilee events, you need to download the pilgrim’s card on the official Jubilee App. The App explains how you can become a Jubilee volunteer, recounts the history of the Jubilee, lists all the 2025 Jubilee’s special events, Jubilee churches, and Jubilee itineraries.
Here too, if you click on contacts, you can write in personal requests, or telephone questions to 011-39-0669869201, 011-39-0669869202, or 011-39-0669869203. Once in Rome, you can also visit the Pilgrims Welcome Center at no. 7 Via della Conciliazione, the wide street from the Tiber to St. Peter’s Square built by Mussolini to celebrate the Lateran Pacts in 1929, whereby Italy recognized The Holy See as a sovereign state.
