We followed the steep, zig zag path up the hillside through the forest to arrive in front of the castle. The castle looks like a state of the art 16th century creation and the location must have made it almost impregnable to assault, with sheer cliffs on almost every side and just one narrow road leading up to it. Entry was 10€ and we spent a couple of hours there as there was so much to see. The views were the most obvious and spectacular thing - all the way to the Adriatic Sea and possibly San Marino, with every hilltop on the Appenines seems to have a castle on it.

There is a well marked route through the castle with the fortified tunnels and fireports followed by the original prison cells and exhibits of torture and the inquisition. The inner structure had barracks, armouries, cells for Papal prisoners and a museum about the life of the enigmatic Cagliostro. He was the most famous prisoner of the fortress, a confidence trickster who travelled throughout Europe and mixed with the rich and famous, involved in alchemy, freemasonry and healing and regarded as a heretic by the church. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in the fortress. He had a small cell with no door, he was lowered in from the room above, where his guard stayed and watched him through a grille and spyhole. I'm sure the view lost its appeal after a while and he died after 4 years in his cell. The armouries had a mixture of medieval, WW1 and WW2 weapons, quite a comprehensive collection! We sat and had an ice cream from the museum shop before doing a final circuit of the walls and then carefully making our way down the path.