‘Ciao Papa’: Rome gears up to bid farewell to Pope Francis

Rome, Italy - Following the death of Pope Francis on Monday, Maria Panessa, who manages the front desk of an upscale hotel in Rome, was inundated with booking requests.

The Bettoja Hotel Atlantico, a family-run establishment housed in an Art Deco building, saw a surge in reservations, including for their luxury penthouse suites, explained the 50-year-old.

“This area is usually busy, but … since the pope died we have had so many more requests, delegations from everywhere,” Panessa said.

Located a stone's throw from Roma Termini, the city's bustling central train station, the hotel is popular with tourists looking for a convenient location or regular guests who enjoy its architectural splendour. But now its rooms are filled with foreign dignitaries and media professionals who are in the city to attend the pope’s funeral tomorrow.

Panessa explained that the hotel's location has newfound significance as it is positioned on a 350-metre (382-yard) stretch between Roma Termini and the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of Rome’s four major basilicas, where Pope Francis will be buried on Saturday. The church was much loved by the pope, who was 88 when he died, and who visited it more than 100 times over the course of his 12-year papacy.

Most of his predecessors had chosen to be buried in the Vatican, with Leo XIII the last pope to be interred outside the city-state in 1903. Panessa expects his popularity to drastically raise the number of people visiting the area.

"People in Italy have a lot of respect for Pope Francis. He was pure, and people understood that he stood up against the system," she said. "I felt very bad when he died, I had a lot of empathy for him."

Panessa added that she saw him as someone who was committed to caring for the poor and marginalised.

Bernado Tahan, a member of the hotel's management team, sat behind piles of invoices in the staff office as he explained that Pope Francis was important to him because he was not afraid to tell "uncomfortable truths", including describing Israel’s war in Gaza as a “genocide”.

On Saturday, a funeral mass will be held at St Peter’s Square. It will be a grand event including a procession led by a priest carrying a cross, followed by the coffin and clergy, and world leaders in attendance including United States President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Francis's coffin will then be taken, in a roughly hour-long procession, from the Vatican to his final resting place. In keeping with his humble and down-to-earth image, Pope Francis had requested to be buried “in the ground, without particular decoration”, marked only by the Latin inscription of his papal name: Franciscus.

Crowds of about 200,000 people are expected to attend the event, with huge swaths of central Rome to be cordoned off, and sophisticated security protocols in place.

According to local media, a no-fly zone will also be in place overhead, patrolled by fighter jets.

About midday on Friday, loud alert signals could be heard echoing across Rome from the Civil Protection Department, with information about restricted areas related to the funeral.

Such a high-profile event, attended by the world's most powerful leaders, has made Panessa uneasy, as she saw Pope Francis as someone who stood up to many of those leaders and those in need.

It's an image that Francesco Tolva, the hotel doorman, agrees with.

"If there is one memory I want Pope Francis to be remembered for, it is when he refused to smile when the press took photos of him with Donald Trump. He wasn't afraid of anybody," he said firmly.

Many younger people Al Jazeera spoke to described Pope Francis as both a "modern" and more "progressive" pontiff than his predecessors.

This is something that Julia Saletti, an animated 28-year-old receptionist at Basilica Hotel, located about 100 metres (330ft) from Pope Francis's final resting place, said might attract more tourists to Santa Maria Maggiore church in the future rather than to St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican some 5km (3 miles) away.

Like many younger Romans, she said she did not have as strong a cultural or religious connection to the Catholic church as her parents and especially her grandparents' generation.

Yet, Saletti and younger Romans Al Jazeera spoke to said Pope Francis had managed to draw global attention to contemporary issues such as climate change, inequality, and migration.

This means that for many people who were not religious, he was still a popular figure, she said.

Saletti explained that her hotel is fully booked for weeks to come, with calls coming in every 10 minutes and guests arriving from all over the world, in particular from Pope Francis's home country, Argentina.

Mohammed Fanta, a 23-year-old hotel worker at Relais Santa Maria Maggiore, a hotel named after the church located just a few metres away, said despite the influx, more business does not always mean more revenue.

During the Jubilee, a major Catholic event held every 25 years, many pilgrims stayed at the hotel. Though he said they were always respectful and a pleasure to host, they do not spend as much as tourists travelling for holidays.

The Esquilino neighbourhood, where the church is located, is full of 19th-century grandeur and upscale restaurants often frequented by people on a luxurious break, he said, adding he now expects more "conservative tourism" with less emphasis on leisure and more on visiting the church.

Crowds have filled St Peter's Square in the Vatican since the pope's death was announced on Monday, and the entire city-state is abuzz with activity.

Many visitors have viewed Pope Francis’s body, which has been lying in state since Wednesday, while others appear content to take a selfie in front of the towering Tuscan colonnades that border the plaza.

Teams of ambulance personnel, mounted police officers, members of the Swiss Guard - the Vatican’s own army - and Italian special forces, some of whom carry intimidating-looking anti-drone weapons, line the plaza.

In St Peter's Square, Al Jazeera spoke to people from many countries, including Morocco, Kenya, and the US.

Some had travelled to Rome upon hearing news of the pope's death, but many were either living in or visiting Rome. Some had extended their stay so they could attend the funeral.

Francisco Horfa, a 33-year-old theology student from the Southeast Asian nation of East Timor, was in Rome to be ordained as a deacon on May 7.

He proudly waved the red, yellow, and black East Timor flag with a compatriot in the plaza as he described this period of mourning as “emotional and full of prayer”.

He said the pope had visited his home country in September and had left a "great impression" on its people.

About half of the nation’s 1.3 million population was reported to have attended his mass on the outskirts of the capital Dili, as he celebrated the nation for its reconciliation with its neighbour Indonesia, from which it achieved independence in 2002.

Annalia Alia, a 69-year-old woman from the Philippines and a devout Catholic, had seen Pope Francis when he visited the Southeast Asian country in 2015.

Now, 10 years later, she had seen his body lying in an open wooden coffin at St Peter's Basilica’s main altar.

"It feels like everything has come full circle, I saw him in life and now I saw him in death," she said. It had been an “indescribable and emotional experience", she added.

She had come to Rome for the Jubilee, when pilgrims from around the world travel to the city to seek spiritual renewal.

During the Jubilee year, the Holy Doors at Rome's four major papal basilicas are opened, allowing pilgrims to pass through them to receive a plenary indulgence (a forgiveness of sins).

Flanked by her two daughters, she said she felt fortunate to have been in Rome when the pope died, but wanted to go to her hotel to rest, as she felt overwhelmed.

Ernest Damasco, a 55-year-old pilgrim also from the Philippines, said he had come to Rome "with the hope of seeing the pope wave from the balcony (overlooking St Peter's Square), but instead it feels like I have lost a father, a great leader who was inspirational to me".

He brought a “fresh and different approach” to his papacy, with more down-to-earth teachings compared with his predecessors that resonated with many Catholics around the world, Damasco said.

The funeral of Pope Francis has created a series of logistical and security challenges for local authorities.

The Vatican has been secured by layers of barriers, and the authorities are well-versed in handling large crowds in its vicinity.

However, the hour-long procession snaking through the centre of Rome has required additional support, including thousands of civilian volunteers from across the country to help the police and military guide the crowds.

Multiple volunteers with the Red Cross from across Italy told Al Jazeera they had responded to a callout by the head office asking for people to help during the hectic period.

The authorities will also have to handle events on Liberation Day on Friday which marks Italy’s freedom from Nazi occupation and fascist rule in 1945 and is commemorated with parades, political speeches, and public gatherings.

Carmela Pitarra, a friendly 53-year-old volunteer from Puglia in southern Italy, helped usher the endless crowds of people exiting the Ottaviano metro station as they headed towards the security barriers erected around the Vatican.

"I loved the pope, so coming to Rome to help during these days is my way of giving something back to him," she said.

She said this week has been an experience she would remember “for the rest of her life”. It feels like the whole world has stopped to pay its respects to the pope, she added.

The area of the Santa Maria Maggiore church encompasses Roma Termini as well as a mix of grand hotels and museums surrounded by tent encampments, where migrants and refugees live in squalid conditions.

Above one makeshift tent, made from pieces of cloth covered with plastic bags to protect it from the rain, graffiti reads "Ciao Papa", which means "Goodbye Pope".

Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis was particularly dedicated to homeless people and spoke about how there was "no social or moral justification" to judge them.

In 2015, he ordered showers, toilets, and a barber service just off St Peter’s Square to be installed for homeless people.

It is a sentiment that Hassan Sagna, a 17-year-old who came to Italy from The Gambia in November and lived in a tent behind Roma Termini for three months, appreciates.

"I am Muslim, not Catholic, but I think the pope was a good man. He showed that he cared for us.”

He said it was comforting to know that the head of such a large institution had the interests of homeless people, migrants and refugees at heart, when the authorities could often be heavy-handed and treat him in a "disrespectful manner", regularly demanding he show his papers and ushering him away from encampments.

Aziz Mbow is a 43-year-old musician and migrant from Senegal. He said the way the pope supported migrants and refugees has given people like him who come to Rome in a vulnerable situation and struggle to find work and affordable housing, while trying to navigate Italian bureaucracy, a sense of hope and comfort.

He said his music, which infuses elements of reggae with West African styles, shares a similar message to that of the late pope: Love, harmony, and treating everyone with respect.

"He was a good man. He spoke up for immigrants," he said as he headed to an Italian language school funded by the Vatican.

Back at the Bettoja Hotel Atlantico, the staff are expecting a busy weekend, with thousands of people thronging the streets and a heavy security presence.

As Tahan sorts through the hotel's paperwork, he says people shouldn't focus merely on witnessing the pope's coffin. "It should be a time for introspection."