Variable

With guide

E-Ticket

About this activity

Travel back to 125AD and explore the imposing Castel Sant'Angelo and Ponte Sant’Angelo in the Parco Adriano of Rome.

A licensed guide will take you to the front of the line to enjoy fast track entry to Hadrian’s cylindrical mausoleum, and explain the changes that took place throughout the centuries behind the fortified walls of the the first ever castle built in Rome.

Initially commissioned by Emperor Hadrian, the building was later used by the popes as a fortress. Now a museum, it was erected on the right bank of the River Tiber and features a garden top and golden quadriga. The popes converted the structure into a castle in the 14th century, with a fortified corridor called the “Passetto di Borgo” that Pope Nicholas III built to connect the castle to St Peter's Basilica.

Your tour also includes the Ponte Sant’Angelo. Also known as the Pons Aelius, it crosses the Tiber River from the riones (neighborhoods) of Ponte and Borgo. Built by Hadrian in 134AD, the bridge is renowned for the Baroque statues of angels holding aloft elements of the Passion of Christ.

Walk along the Passetto as your guide introduces you to the history of this 800-meters-long (0.5 miles) corridor running all the way through the Borgo Pio from the Vatican Popes residency to Castel St. Angelo.

While walking along the Passetto, you can admire the Borgo Pio with its lovely and characteristic medieval streets and buildings until you reach the most famous square in the world, St. Peter's Square, with its colonnade, 140 statues of Saints, fountains and the wonderful Basilica of St. Peters.