Castel Sant'Angelo, with the rooms that are usually shut

Castel Sant'Angelo has been five buildings in one. Hadrian built it in the 130s as his family's tomb. It became a fortress in the city walls, then a papal stronghold, with a covered corridor, the Passetto, running from the Vatican so a pope could flee along it, as Clement VII did in 1527 when the Sack of Rome came over the walls. Then a prison, where Benvenuto Cellini was locked up and escaped, and the setting for the last act of Tosca, who throws herself off the terrace. Since 1925 it has been a museum, with the bronze angel on top and the best view of St Peter's in Rome from the terrace below it.

On your own ticket you climb the Roman spiral ramp into the tomb, pass the urns' chamber, walk up through the papal apartments of Paul III, painted like a Renaissance palace, and out onto the terrace. This tour, run by Loving Rome, adds what the ticket does not: the olearie, the huge terracotta jars where the castle stored oil for a siege, the historic prisons, and the tiny theatre of Clement VII. The guided part takes one to two hours, and you can stay on afterwards.

It costs 58 euros with the 18-euro entry ticket inside the price, so the guide and the closed rooms cost about 40.

This is GetYourGuide's own-brand tour of the castle, a GetYourGuide Original, and the only well-reviewed listing that promises the rooms the public does not see. It was rated 4.7 from about 1,900 reviews, with the guides scored 4.7.

The official ticket is the alternative, and a very good one at 18 euros. In 2026 the castle also opens on the first Monday of each month, normally its closing day, from 2pm to 8pm with a special 5-euro ticket sold only at the door. If you want the prisons and the oil stores, this tour is how you get in.