This essay explores the perception and experience of interior recreational spaces in Renaissance palaces, including the cantina, or wine cellar, and other chambers dedicated to informal dining, refreshment, and entertainment. Through the uniquely well-documented example of the Magno Palazzo, or main palace, of the Castello del Buonconsiglio at Trent, which was constructed in a unified programme of building and ornamentation between 1528 and 1536 for Bernardo Cles, Prince-Bishop of Trent (1484-1539), I trace the cues by which buildings and their decorative ensembles choreograph the apprehension, movement, and activity of individuals. The architectura features, painted programme, inscriptions, and sculpted ornamentation of the Magno Palazzo work together to articulate an experiential journey through shifting registers of order and decorum, creating a mobilized aesthetic of descent that guides the reception of beholders as they move from the official and public spaces of the palace’s main floor to those more private and secluded spaces dedicated to otium (leisure and productive recreation), including the ground-floor rooms situated at the perimeter of the garden. While all these material elements orient beholders as to the function of given spaces within the hierarchical structure of the palace, the frescoes in particular heighten the beholder’s somatic experience of movement and transition by incorporating psychosensory cues that set and disrupt expectations and prompt response.