Piazza dei Cinquecento, the vast
square outside Termini rail station, reopened Tuesday after a
major refurbishment and restyling to make it a fitting gateway
to the Eternal City for the Roman Catholic Jubilee Holy Year.
Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said the new 'gateway' to the city
"opens up clear and wide" at the foot of the reinforced concrete
wave of the station shelter, a sequence of parallel bands, paved
with travertine, dark basalt and draining materials, on which
the oval and white shelters of the new bus terminuses stand out.
For the Jubilee, the square presents itself to the city as a
brand new space.
"A space - says the mayor and commissioner for the Holy Year
Gualtieri - that after years of degradation acquires an
architectural quality appropriate to the Capital and its
history".
For the moment, this is only the first lot, the mayor explains,
equal to 85% of the complex: the access areas to the station,
the new bus terminal, the space for taxis.
The most important functions to welcome the millions of pilgrims
who will arrive in the capital by rail. In a good part of the
left side of the square, work is still in full swing, but buses
will be able to take possession of their new stalls tonight and
we will be able to proceed quickly to the completion of the
work, scheduled for this summer.
There is no delay, according to Gualtieri, but on the contrary,
he emphasizes, we are ahead of schedule because what was
inaugurated today is "more than expected: the intervention, by
prime ministerial decree, was divided into two lots and the
second was to be completed in 2026.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
