The "Duomo" or dome of St. Peter's, brought to you by Michelangelo himself. We didn't realize you could actually climb up to the cupola (lantern) of the dome until some students in the program brought that to our attention shortly after our arrival in Rome. Since it was one of the things on our "to do before we leave Rome" list, we ventured up on a glorious Sunday afternoon. (Sunday afternoons are great times to visit St. Peter's, as the crowds have greatly diminished.)
The view from the cupola is one of the best in town, and relatively inexpensive to boot: 5 euros by foot (a piede); 7 if you want to take the elevator to the top of the basilica and then walk the rest of the way. By foot, there are a total of some 620 steps, slightly less than half if you do the elevator. We did it by foot (just Keely, Paul, Clare, Paul A. and Katie).
The walk up was not easy. There is a point where the walls are sloping (the curvature of the dome), and the going gets very narrow. At one point, you're spit out into a walkway on the
inside of the dome, some one hundred feet above main altar below. Another set of stairs leads up toward the top, with things getting narrower all the time. Finally, a small circular staircase with ropes to steady your ascent, leads out to the glorious panorama of Rome.
You can also spend some time (either on the way up or the way back down) on the roof of St. Peter's. The first and second photos, above, are from this leg of the visit. We were amused to find a souvenir shop, post office, and restaurant/coffee shop here. How many times have you seen pictures of St. Peter's? Did you ever think there was a restaurant/coffee shop on its roof? Pretty sure it's the only major basilica in Rome (maybe in the world?) that can make that boast.
