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Vatican Jubilee Planning

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We had planned Apr. 28, 2025 for a late in the day visit to St. Peters, including a dome hike. We've been before and were planning to skip the museums/Sistine chapel this time.

I just read that the Jubilee year will include a "Jubilee of People with Disabilities on Apr. 28. The website says that there will be a pilgrimage to the holy door from 8-5, followed by mass in St. Peters square at 5 p.m.

Now, I'm not sure what to do. My instincts are to avoid the area. But, someone in our party really wanted to climb the dome. And, I think it might be neat to see the mass (will that be the Pope conducting mass?).

Anyway, any idea if this will be so big to simply say don't go. Or, could we sneak in and climb the dome and maybe see part of the mass in the square? I don't mean to be insensitive. But, obviously many of the disabled will not be climbing the dome. Would that still work. Security lines? Any thoughts much appreciated. Thanks.

Posted by
1324 posts

It sounds like you can’t buy tickets ahead of time, have to go thru security and the dome closes at 6 pm April-Oct. And you have a special mass going on. Oh boy….Hopefully, someone on here can give you first hand advice. Good luck.

Posted by
12349 posts

I cannot help but wonder would the dome be open while the Pope is celebrating Mass. That's your homework assignment :-)

IF you can be up there during Mass, I do not think you could even see the canopy where Mass is celebrated from the dome. I think all you would see are the people in the square, and not much else.

Picking another day might be the choice to make. ? Hopefully your schedule has some flexibility

Posted by
20 posts

Some further looking shows viator selling tours of the basilica and the dome as late as 2 pm. So, I am assuming that the dome is open at least that late. I didn’t mean to infer we would try to watch the mass from the dome. We just want to climb the dome and then it would be interesting to see all or part of the mass from the square. Hhhmmm. I don’t have flexibility on days. But, maybe I can move the day around a bit.

Anyone have experience with how crowded these jubilees can get and whether the dome stays open during the mass in the square?

Posted by
84 posts

We just returned from being in Rome Dec 31 - Jan 5. We thought we were prepared for the crowds, having been to Rome several times before. Crushing crowds is an understatement. There will be no "sneaking in". The security lines were insane. If we could do it again, we wouldn't go near the Vatican.

Posted by
2 posts

@drew
The Jubilee happens every 25 years, so relying on previous celebrations won't be a good way to predict what the crowds will be like...

We visited last year in October. What helped make the crowds more manageable was to arrive at the Square/St. Peters just before opening time, which was 7am. We made it through security in about 10-15 minutes and were able to spend a good hour and a half inside with plenty of room. When we exited St. Peter's, the security line was hundreds of people long.

While we did not do the dome climb, as we got through security, about a dozen people started lining up for that

Posted by
20 posts

We decided to book a dome tour that includes the papal crypt and the basilica. It will cost us more. But, we now have pre-reserved tickets to the dome. We start at 7:15 a.m. So, we hope that will at least be the lowest crowd of the day. Looking forward to it! Thanks for all of your help getting to this decision.

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