Vatican Jubilee Planning

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.

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

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?

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.

@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

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.

I thought that I'd give an update. A few weeks ago, our tour operator told us that our previously schedule 7:15 a.m. tour would now start at 9 a.m. and that there were no earlier tours for anyone. I was worried about that later start and the security lines. With the passing of the pope, I am now wondering if we should just cancel. Our planned date of Apr. 28 is in between the funeral and the conclave. But, it is during the 9 days of mourning. I'm not sure what to expect during that time. Any thoughts?

Double check with the tour operator if they have access to the priority queue. That's new since you started planning. If they don't, you can book entry to St. Peter's (which includes an audio guide and the priority queue). The dome is supposed to be open from the 27th, but they're not selling tickets yet, so you would still have to queue inside to buy that ticket.

I checked the website and they are not selling St. Peters or dome tours on Monday, Apr. 28. I have checked before and they have never sold dome tickets on that day (at least that I have seen for the last 4 months or so). However, there are countless tours that advertise tickets for that day. Can you help me understand the priority queue? If that means that my tour guide can now get us to skip the line, then I am fine starting at 9 a.m. For what it is worth, the tour guide said that the tour would be 165 minutes even at 9 a.m. and that is the same estimated time as they had for 7:15 a.m. Does that mean they have the priority queue?

I checked with my tour company and we already have "priority access". So, I'm just going to stop worrying about this and go with the flow. I think I've done all that I can to make it work in advance. Of course, any thoughts about what I might be missing are welcome. Thanks.