Summer Nights at Castel Sant’Angelo

During hot summer nights, Castel Sant’Angelo opens its doors to tourists and Romans alike. Summer Nights at Castel Sant’Angel 2012 is promoted by the Special Superintendence for Art-Historic and Ethno-Anthropological Heritage, and for Museum Excellence of the City of Rome, in collaboration with Munus and Civita. Every week, beginning Friday, July 6, guided visits will be free, and spaces usually closed to the public – such as Passetto di Borgo, the ancient prisons, and the heated bathroom of Clement VII (la Stufetta) – will be open. Then, from July 11, 27 free concerts will take place, spanning a range of genres, from classical, opera, pop and jazz – every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday inside the Balestra Courtyard. Besides the opportunity to visit the Castle in its entirety, with its lavish papal chambers from the Renaissance, elegant courtyards and dark prisons, visitors have access to the Passetto di Borgo, the by-now famous, 800-m (1/2 mi) long passageway that connects the Castle to the Vatican Palaces, as well as the historic prisons, dark and cramped cells that, from the Renaissance until the 1800s, held the likes of Pope Paul III, the Italian humanist Pomponio Leto, Benvenuto Cellini, Giordano Bruno, Beatrice Cenci, and Count Cagliostro. Not only, but the bathing chambers used by Clement VII will also be on show; an architectural and decorative gem from the first half of the 1500s, the Pope's bathroom is one of the very few baths (with heated water!) from the Renaissance. From / ITALIA website