Rome: St. Peter's Basilica Guided Tour with Dome Access

Most visitors see one St. Peter's Basilica. On this guided tour you see three levels of it. You start below ground in the Vatican Grottoes, where popes have been laid to rest for centuries beneath the church above. Your local guide explains who lies here, and how a quiet Roman hillside cemetery became the heart of the Catholic world. Back at floor level, the scale changes completely. Your guide leads you through the nave, past Michelangelo's Pietà and Bernini's bronze Baldachin, connecting the gold and marble above to the tombs you have just seen below. Then you go up. A lift takes you to the interior gallery, where mosaics that look small from the floor turn out to be metres wide and the whole basilica opens beneath you. The staircase then narrows with the curve of the dome until it releases you onto the cupola terrace — St. Peter's Square directly below, the Vatican gardens on one side and the rooftops of Rome on the other. Your guide meets you at Piazza della Città Leonina holding a white flag, helps you through the mandatory security check, and keeps the group to no more than 30 so there is room for questions. The tour ends on the terrace, where you can stay as long as you like before making your own way down. Below, inside and above — one route, one building, three worlds.