Paul III's Apartments and the Courtyard of Executions

Two rooms in this building sit a short walk apart and explain the whole place. One is the set of apartments Pope Paul III had fitted out inside the fortress: paintings, statues, a decorated ceiling, the arrangement of a man who expected to be comfortable. The other is the courtyard where executions were carried out, in the open, within the same walls. The guided route takes in both, along with the emperor's burial chamber at the centre of the Roman drum, where Hadrian and several of his successors were laid, and the treasury room, where the papacy kept the state's money behind masonry designed to stop cannon. Entry is skip-the-line and the tour ends on the terrace, above the bend of the river. One practical note that saves ten minutes: the group forms outside the main gate on Lungotevere Castello, not inside the ticket office. Cross the bridge of angels and walk to the gate.