The Dome of St Peter’s Basilica — Returning at Dawn to the Sky Above the Vatican

After finishing the guided tour of St Peter’s tomb, I passed through the necropolis and at last entered St Peter’s Basilica. The sight before me was so majestic that it almost took my breath away. Standing before the vast central altar, the glittering golden mosaics, the soaring ceiling, and the overwhelming sense of space, I remained still for quite some time, utterly captivated. It did not feel like a beautiful building alone, but a holy place layered with long memories of faith and prayer.

The Dome of St Peter’s Basilica — Returning at Dawn to the Sky Above the Vatican

The day I failed to climb the dome

So entranced was I by the beauty of St Peter’s Basilica that I stayed inside far too long and, in the end, missed the last admission time for the dome. By the time I made my way to the entrance, entry for the day had already closed. According to the official information for St Peter’s Basilica, the dome opens at 7.30 in the morning and closes at 5.00 pm during the winter season.

Whenever I visit a cathedral while travelling, I always enjoy climbing its bell tower or dome and looking out over the city below. So failing to go up the dome this time left me with the feeling that my pilgrimage was somehow unfinished.

Vatican City and Rome seen from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica

Back to the Vatican at dawn the next day

After returning to the hotel feeling disappointed, I searched online again and found that dome tickets could be purchased from 7.00 in the morning. The image of that immense dome, seen from below inside the basilica, stayed in my mind so strongly that I felt I would regret it for the rest of my life if I gave up at that point. So I resolved to return the following day and went to bed early.

Although I had been unwell with flu for several days, I got up at 6.00 in the morning and set out in haste, arriving at the Vatican before 7.00. To my surprise, many people were already there. Thankfully, though, they were waiting to enter the basilica itself, and I was the first person waiting to go up to the dome.

As entry to the dome begins at 7.30, I waited quietly for half an hour. Yet in that brief time, people gathered quickly behind me, and before long the queue had grown very long. Since I had already missed the chance once the day before, even that waiting felt like a pilgrimage granted to me once again.

The terrace of St Peter’s Basilica’s dome reached by lift

The breathless climb up the dome

The dome of St Peter’s Basilica has a total of 551 steps if you climb all the way to the top on foot. I took the lift to the middle terrace and then climbed the remaining 320 steps to the summit. The lift does not go all the way to the top, but only as far as the terrace.

Even though the staircase began from the terrace level, it was far steeper and narrower than I had expected. As I went further, the final stretch became increasingly tight, and the spiral passage curving along the wall was in places so narrow that I had to tilt my body slightly to continue. Step by step, my breathing grew rougher and my chest heaved. Yet that very difficulty made the climb feel all the more special. It turned the way upwards into a more meaningful kind of pilgrimage.

The terrace above St Peter’s Basilica’s dome — a path close to the sky lined with statues of saints

The splendour of the Vatican seen from the top of the dome

When I finally reached the top after that difficult final ascent, an astonishing view opened out before me. The first thing that caught my eye was St Peter’s Square spreading out below. Bernini’s great elliptical colonnades seemed to stretch out like open arms embracing the pilgrims, while the obelisk standing proudly at the centre gave the whole space a remarkable sense of order. From below, while walking through the square, I had not fully grasped its structure and harmony; from above, it all became beautifully clear at a glance.

When I lifted my eyes further, the rooftops of Rome stretched endlessly beyond the Vatican walls. Domes and bell towers rose here and there among ochre and grey-brown roofs, and the whole city seemed to be waking slowly in the early morning light. The beautiful Vatican Gardens could also be seen at a glance, while in the distance the city of Rome unfolded softly across the horizon. Perhaps the depth and gravity carried by an ancient city are felt precisely in a view like this.

The splendour of the Vatican seen from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica

Another kind of wonder inside the dome

The wonder of this dome did not end with the outward view alone. On the way up, the golden mosaics inside the dome revealed themselves at close range, and they moved me in a wholly different way from when I had looked up at them from the basilica floor below. From a distance, they had seemed no more than radiant decoration; up close, they revealed themselves as delicate work built layer upon layer by countless hands over a long stretch of time. The official guide to St Peter’s Basilica also notes that one can admire Michelangelo’s dome and its monumental mosaics up close from here. How could mosaics of such beauty have come into being by human hands? Might it be that God created this astonishing beauty through human hands?

The dome of St Peter’s Basilica seen beyond Bernini’s baldachin

The mosaics of St Peter’s Basilica seen up close on the way up the dome

The time of pilgrimage drawn together into one

At that moment, I felt that everything had become one: the awe I had felt the day before before the tomb of St Peter, the grandeur I had gazed up at inside the basilica, and the time spent climbing the stairs in the early morning, pausing to catch my breath as I made my way back here. Beneath the basilica, I encountered the memory of the Apostle’s tomb and the early Church. Inside the basilica, I beheld the beauty of faith rising heavenwards. And from the dome above, I was able to look out over the Vatican and Rome, holding all of it together in one view.

The interior of St Peter’s Basilica seen from above on the way up the dome

The dome of St Peter’s Basilica seen from inside the basilica

The golden dome decoration and frescoes inside St Peter’s Basilica

Not a viewing platform, but another pilgrimage path

To me, the dome of St Peter’s Basilica was another pilgrimage path, one that could only be reached by climbing with the heart of a pilgrim. The sky and cityscape I encountered after breathlessness and weary legs left an impression far too deep to be contained in the simple words, “It was beautiful.”

At the time, missing the final admission the previous day had felt deeply disappointing. But looking back, I now realise that it allowed me to return the next morning in the quietest hour, and for that I came to feel grateful. And there, in that waiting at dawn and at the end of 320 steps, I felt I could finally understand, at least a little, why St Peter’s Basilica continues to move the hearts of so many pilgrims.

 

On a pilgrimage path towards my mother, now a star – Little Star