Although I’ve been to St Peter’s Basilica before, I’d never ventured to the Dome.  At around 600 steps for the complete climb up a steadily decreasing space, I wasn’t keen. But tor €5 it’s possible to go halfway via elevator to the rooftop, and see the Dome up as close as I wanted to. Arriving just after 8.30 on the morning after the parade, there were no queues, and we were soon in the lift that deposited us here.

I never would have imagined that there would be so many other little buildings, nooks and crannies here – it’s definitely well hidden from ground level.  The statues at the front of the picture above are the clock and Saints at the top right hand side of the building that you can see more clearly in the photo below (taken in Summer 2012)..

From here, there were some great views of the Vatican Gardens, Sistine chapel and beyond.. And then the Dome itself … I thought this was all I would see, and wasn’t quite expecting what came next. Through the little door at the top of the stairs  just out of shot in the picture above, we emerged onto the balcony that you might just be able to make out in between the strip of gold writing and the lowest row of windows below.

This was our close up view of the Dome itself…

Thankfully there was a cage to stave off some of the vertigo…