Castel Sant'Angelo

This guide to Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome opens on the sixth of May, 1527, as mutinous troops sack the city and Pope Clement VII flees the Vatican in a hooded cloak. You'll follow the secret Passetto di Borgo, the corridor connecting the Vatican to this fortress, and the guards who bought him time to reach it. The fortress's earlier life as Emperor Hadrian's mausoleum, and the angel still standing at its summit, round out the story. Look for the scars of gunfire still marking the Passetto's walls above you.