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St Peter's dome climb and guided tour in the basilica in the same morning?

Posted by on

I have 9am tickets to do the dome climb and 10:30am tickets to do the guided tour. Do I really have enough time to do both? The meeting place for the guided tour is at the visit desk, which is past the security checkpoint, so at least I shouldn't have to wait in the security line again.

I had requested the guided tour several months ago, didn't hear from them and bought the 9am dome tickets because I thought my request wouldn't be approved. They finally got back to me a couple of days ago that my ticket request was granted and I was assigned the 10:30am slot, and now I'm wondering if I could realistically do both. AI thinks it's doable if I move very quickly, but I don't know if it's humanly possible.

Posted by
13591 posts

.... it's doable if I move very quickly,

That's the key.
How well do you climb stairs? Even if you take the elevator for the 1st part, there are still a lot of stairs to the top.
And you won't have a lot of time to enjoy just gazing at the view. .

Posted by
21 posts

Doable - maybe, enjoyable - not for everyone. The dome climb (especially if you're taking the stairs the whole way) is pretty gruelling by itself in summer, and you'll be rushed. My problem with this plan is that the guided tour is after your dome climb - If you miss your tour, you will be significantly worse off than missing the dome climb. I'm also not sure if your actual ticket entry time is 10:30 or your meet time is 10:30; you should plan to be 20-30 minutes early especially since that is peak time.

I'd rather not be doing the dome climb whilst obsessively checking my watch, that's just me!

Posted by
710 posts

The problem with attempting to do the dome climb quickly is that your speed will be limited by the pace of the people in front of you going both up and down. Even if you take the elevator, there are a lot of stairs and the staircase is narrow and winding. You won't be able to just zip around other people. If you were to take the elevator as far as it goes, there is still a decent view from that level, so maybe consider it as an alternative to not using the ticket.

Posted by
2 posts

If I do go up, I think I'll stick to the elevator level and may be see the inside of the dome at most. Thank you all!

Posted by
10116 posts

I have done the dome, but it was over 40 years ago. I enjoyed seeing the dome up close (Michelangelo's design) as well as the view from the roof of the basilica.

Not sure you can do it in an hour and a half, but suspect that you can. If your tour is of the basilica then you won't have far to go to connect with the group, just find out where it meets before you do the dome.

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