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About this activity

Start your day early to beat the crowds and be among the first to climb up the Dome. With commentary from your expert, English-speaking Vatican guide you’ll take a short walk along the St. Peter’s square before getting to the lift that takes you up to the base of the Dome. Here you will be able to admire its beautiful interior, then continue climbing 320 steps and get to the very top. From here you are rewarded with the most magnificent views over the Eternal City – no view in Rome is comparable to this. You will have enough time to take your best shots and to enjoy the panorama, before meeting again with your expert guide for a guided tour of the Basilica.

After, you will take advantage of the access already gained in the morning, to visit St. Peter’s Basilica with our expert guide, without having to join the long lines to enter it. Here the guide will take you through the main highlights. You will discover the incredible Papal Altar under Bernini’s Baldachin and marvel at Michelangelo’s other timeless masterpiece, La Pietà, as you explore the most important church in the Christian world. Your tour ends with a visit to the subterranean crypts of the Basilica, where many famous Pope’s have their monumental tombs. Once outside again, you can admire Bernini’s clever optical illusion in St. Peter’s Square, spot the balcony from which the Pope delivers his public addresses and snap photos of the basilica’s heavenly façade, having covered the Vatican and St. Peter’s from top to bottom!