St. Peters Basilica + Dome Access + Vatican Grottoes

You meet your group in front of St. Peters Basilica and the air is filled with anticipation as the very familiar dome looms over you. Your guide introduces you and briefly takes you to the inside and the journey starts by a special rise that gradually opens Rome in your sight. The marble floors become smaller as one ascends until you reach the balcony. Here one looks down into the Basilica itself and out toward the roofs of the Eternal City, with an entirely new view of this historic site. You stop under the dome where you look at the mosaics that surround you. Their details and colors are life-like up close. Your guide tells you of the symbolism, the workmanship, the piety of each figure, and you can see that faith and art are united in every inch of the building. As you go on you come to the upper terrace, and here you have a panorama of Rome. Centuries old roofs, rolling hills, and sunlit domes are stretched in the distance. It is some silent, undisturbed moment which stops your breath not by people, but by beauty of a quiet environment.

Once you have descended you walk into the Basilica by an exclusive entrance without any long queues. The size and depth of the space envelops you inside. There are golden mosaics on the shine, the marble columns are emerging everywhere, and the feeling is both tremendous and very human. The Baldachin of Bernini is placed in the center of the church, and its pieces of bronze are full of movement and meaning. Your guide tells you about ambition, belief and artistic genius that made this great space. Close at hand, you are drawn by Michelangelo Pieta with its silent feeling and you spend time to internalize the gentleness cut into stone.

The route goes further underground into the Vatican Grottoes. Here, the mood shifts. Here in this quiet dark corner, popes lie in grave and remnants of the old basilica can be found. The silence is pregnant with history. When traveling through the grottoes, you get the feeling of the ongoing nature of faith and tradition that has characterized this location over centuries.

By the time you get back to the St. Peter Square, you feel complete. You have viewed the Basilica that way, and in its heart, and in its subterranean foundations. This is more than a visit. It is a trip through the strata of history, art and faith. Through The Vatican Visit, you are brought through St. Peter in Basilica in multiple different angles, bringing its tales and its ambiance with you even after you have left.