City under construction

New cobbled streets being laid and pavements redone.

Rome is undergoing a facelift for the pope's 2025 Jubilee celebrations, but a month before it starts, much of the Eternal City remains a building site.

Key monuments are hidden by scaffolding, while statues are covered with plastic sheeting.

"It's weird to see a city totally under construction," Clara Jay said during a visit to the Trevi fountain, where a walkway has been installed over the Baroque masterpiece and the waters stopped while it is cleaned.

The Italian capital is "still very beautiful," she added. Her brother Maxime, surveying a temporary pool into which tourists throw their coins, admitted to being "a bit disappointed".

A short walk away is the fountain and obelisk in front of the Pantheon, one of the best-preserved relics of ancient Rome. It, too, is boarded off.

And it's the same story across the Italian capital, as it prepares for the arrival of the 33 million people expected next year for the Jubilee, a year of pilgrimage declared by Pope Francis.