The Tiber walk: Castel Sant'Angelo to Ponte Sisto
The angel bridge, the emperor's tomb turned fortress, and the river path down to Ponte Sisto. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Ponte Sant'Angelo
Start on the bridge, lined with Bernini's angels carrying the instruments of the Passion. Walk it slowly towards the castle; the angels were designed to lead the eye exactly this way. Best in the low evening light, when the travertine goes gold.

2. Castel Sant'Angelo
Hadrian's tomb, then a papal fortress, then a prison — Rome reusing its own monuments for two thousand years. You don't have to go up; the spiral ramp and the rampart view are the reward if you do. The exterior reads fine from the river too.

3. Lungotevere embankment
Drop to the lower river path below the *muraglioni* (the high flood walls) where you can. Down here the traffic disappears and it's just the green water, the plane trees, and the occasional rower. Walk south with the current.

4. Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II / St Peter's view
Look back upstream from around here: the dome of St Peter's lines up over the river, framed by the bridges. A free, unhurried version of a view most people queue for. Then carry on south.

5. Lungotevere dei Tebaldi bend
The river curves left and the far bank fills with the rooflines of the old centre. A good stretch to slow down on; benches, shade, the city turned away from its own traffic. The end is just ahead.

6. Ponte Sisto
The fifteenth-century pedestrian bridge that lands you in Trastevere. Cross it at dusk when the lamps come on and the far bank fills up. Stop on the middle and look back the way you came; this is the walk's last and best moment.

The Tiber walk: Castel Sant'Angelo to Ponte Sisto