The Gran Loggia and the Painted Ceilings, Shared or Private

Bookable as a shared group or as a private tour, and built around the decoration rather than the fortifications. It starts on the bridge, with the ten angels and what they are holding. Each one carries an instrument of the Passion, and the arrangement is a sequence to be read in order as you cross, which is why the guide starts here rather than at the gate. Inside, the route runs from the dynastic mausoleum at the centre, where Hadrian was buried, up through the papal corridors to the Gran Loggia of Paul III, which faces the river and was built as a place to be seen standing. The ceilings on the way are covered in grotesques and trompe l'oeil: painted architecture that continues real architecture, cornices that are not there, openings onto skies that do not exist. It was fashionable, it was expensive, and it was meant to convince. The visit ends on the upper terrace. One thing stated plainly, because other listings are vaguer about it: access to the Passetto di Borgo, the passage to the Vatican, is not included here. You will see where it starts and where it goes, and you will not walk it. Arrive five minutes before the start time.