A month out from the pope's 2025 Jubilee celebrations, much of the city of Rome remains a building site.
Key monuments are hidden by scaffolding, while statues are covered with plastic sheeting as the city undergoes a face lift.
There were 249 construction plans set out for the jubilee celebrations, and as of November 7, 105 were complete.
Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri said the works are on track and that "all the main targets and milestones have been met".
The Italian capital is expected to see the arrival of 33 million people in 2025 for the jubilee, a year of pilgrimage declared by Pope Francis.
It is an opportunity for pilgrimage and prayer organised roughly every 25 years by the Catholic Church, but some locals feel that the construction work has been a "disaster".
'Rome will explode'
Concerns are growing about how an already crowded city will cope with millions more visitors.
"It's a disaster, all of Rome," lamented Tiziana Renzetti, a local resident stuck in traffic earlier this week.
"The jubilee… I don't even want to think about it!"
Taxi driver Marco Palmigiani said he expected the traffic to get much worse. "Rome will explode," he said.
At the official jubilee shop a stone's throw from the Vatican, everything from water bottles to T-shirts bearing the event logo and its anime-inspired mascot are already on sale.
But with just a month to go until Pope Francis launches proceedings by opening the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica on December 24, the preparations seem far from complete.
Traffic jams — already endemic in a city where the car is king — form between diversions, the beeping of horns adding to the din.
Dotted among the construction sites, a small army of specialists clean marbled statues and monuments sheathed in boards or plastic sheeting.
"It's a bit of a shame because it obstructs the view of things," said Susanna Catellani, a 22-year-old from northern Italy visiting Rome. "Luckily I've seen it other times, so I can get over it."
Tourists disappointed
Many visitors have posted online photos of the disruption, noting how it contrasts sharply with the expectations of a trip to Rome.
"It's weird to see a city totally under construction," Clara Jay, 20, 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 25-year-old 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, and it, too, is boarded off.
Some key sites would be ready and open as normal within weeks, the Rome authorities stressed.
"It's a bit of a shame because it obstructs the view of things," said Susanna Catellani, a 22-year-old from northern Italy visiting Rome.
Rino Fisichella, the Vatican's lead organiser of the jubilee, said "the city has readied itself to offer an even more beautiful face".
"And little by little we will see the construction sites, which have tested everyone's patience for months, disappear."
AFP
