About the possible disruptions, the only thing that comes to my mind is the canonization (excuse my spelling) of Monseñor Josemaria Escrivá de Balaguer (the founder of the Opus Dei). It was scheduled for the end of May, but it has been changed to the 6th of October, Sunday ( http://www.escriva-canonization.org/ ).

I wouldn´t call it a festival, I would call it a logistic nightmare :)). I don´t know if there will be so many people as with Father Pio, but from Spain there will be a lot of pilgrims (most of them will travel by bus or plane, but there will also be cruise ships). The travelers will more likely stay around 4 or 5 days in Rome. Most of the Argentinian Opus members have had to cancel their trip due to the country situation.

If you are planning to be in Rome during that time, and you haven´t booked your hotel, DO IT NOW. They have been organizing the trip for at least a year, and the prices I am being told are completely outrageous.

We were in Rome last May, and on the 19th of May, our first Sunday, there was a canonization of 5 not very popular saints. On the evening of the 18th, Saint Peter´s square was full of workers getting everything ready. But it was quite interesting, we managed to see and talk to the spanish defense minister, the Madrid town-mayor, our bishop... Everybody was in town for the canonization, so the one in October will be crazy. On the next morning we opted for a different visit (the Forum, the Colosseum, and the Archeobus) and we didn´t go near the masses of people approaching Saint Peter.

Hope it helped you,

Cova