Climbing St. Peter's dome - how much time?
 

We have a 9:00 Scavi tour reservation in early May, I now need to make a reservation for the Vatican museums. We definitely want to climb the dome, we are fit and can probably skip the elevator, just for the heck of it. I have read about some long lines to go up, but didn't seem much about the total time.

The Scavi tour ends around 10:30 I guess, how much time should we expect to go up the dome and down? Trying to find out if a 1:00 reservation for the museums would be reasonable...

Thanks

I'll be going up there as well in May. The last few times I was lucky and had no line to wait in and so went up directly. I would say it took an hour up and down (by stairs). There is a little coffee/gift shop upstairs. After I do the Scavi and poke around St.Peter's I'm then going to head "upstairs", grab a little snack and wander around top for a bit. They also have washrooms up at the top. Decent as I remember, no squatting. If there is a line up you could have a long wait. Maybe factor in a 1/2 hour in case of a line. The last time I went was the month of November on a Wednesday afternoon not in May.

You really want to climb 551 steps? I think you'd need 2-2.5 hours, and if you go to the museums without having a bite to eat, I don't think you'd get much out of the visit.

You really want to climb 551 steps? I think you'd need 2-2.5 hours, and if you go to the museums without having a bite to eat, I don't think you'd get much out of the visit.

You can be slowed by people on the stairs, so it would still be difficult to say how long it might take. Also, our Scavi tour ended a few minutes late because our group was slowed by other groups ahead of us. The tour ends in the crypt where several popes are interred, and we took a few additional minutes to view this area before exiting. Then you have to walk to the museum entrance...

FYI, although climbing stairs is not a problem for me, climbing tightly winding stairs can give me vertigo if I go too fast.