By mid-morning, the area around the Trevi fountain is already difficult to cross. Visitors stop suddenly to take photographs while tour groups gather behind raised umbrellas, and security staff redirect the flow of people through temporary barriers placed around the monument. Nearby, souvenir kiosks sell rosaries, plastic gladiator helmets, bottled water and magnets in the summer heat. Rome has always depended on the people passing through it. Pilgrims, tourists and travellers have crossed the city for centuries, following routes that were familiar long before they arrived. What feels different today is the scale of that movement, and the way the historic centre has gradually reorganised itself around it. During the Jubilee year, the city can often feel structured almost entirely around the management of visitors. Barriers redirect pedestrian flows around monuments. Portable toilets sit beside churches and Renaissance walls. Pilgrims queue in the heat outside St Peter’s Square and Castel Sant’Angelo while crowds continue moving through temporary routes and checkpoints. Public space becomes a place of waiting, circulation and constant exposure. Around Rome’s most visited …