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| Picture by Kolohe |
Climbing to the top of St Peters Basilica Dome in Vatican City is not included in tours of The Vatican Museums or of St Peters Basilica. This is a separate tour and tickets are very limited, so reservations need to be made well in advance of a visit. Our dome tour was several days after our tour of the Basilica.
Dome tours start at a Basilica side entrance and to be certain that visitors keep on the correct path while traveling to the entrance, there are colorfully-dressed Vatican guards at all of the private doorways.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
While walking along a side of the Basilica, we passed the statue of St Andrew Kim Taegon, the newest statue in Vatican City. St Taegon was the first Korean Catholic priest and is the patron saint of Korean clergy. Pope John Paul II canonized him on 6 May 1984.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
In addition to the statues, along the way there were also a series of mosaic artworks and bee sculptures. Heraldic Bee sculptures are found throughout the Basilica and used to symbolize nobility.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
When we arrived at the Basilica dome entrance door, we discovered that we had "General" tickets and had to wait until all of the people with reserved times went ahead of us. Of course, every time we were getting close to the door, a new group of people with assigned times arrived and went ahead of us. Anyway, we finally made it through the entrance door and up to the first level just below the dome windows. The next flight of stairs took us a little higher on the outside of the dome to another door. From this level, we were fairly close to the statues that can be seen along the roofline from the ground. Once through the second doorway there was a hallway with gold tiles that led to the dome's interior balcony that we could see when we were previously on the floor of the Basilica and looked up.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
As we walked around the interior balcony, there were amazing paintings and mosaic works of art on the walls.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
Looking down from the balcony at the narthex main entrance we could see the area in the Basilica that was filled with clear plastic chairs.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Basilica Alter (Picture by Kolohe) |
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| Looking up at the Dome |
From the balcony there is a "golden stairway" that leads to the top of the dome. At first, the stairs are wide and generally straight. Then, the steps narrow and start to curve to the dome's shape. After some really winding stairs, the passageway narrows and the walls are at such an angle that it is difficult to stand up straight and one arm has to rest on the wall in order to walk.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
We finally arrived at the top of the dome and from the outside balcony we had great views of Vatican City.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
In the above picture the two straight line buildings on the diagonal are part of The Vatican Museums and the rectangular building at the bottom of the picture perpendicular to the Museums is the Sistine Chapel.
We left Vatican City by crossing over the River Tiber on the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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