A reputation as a haunted island that dates back to Homer, in ancient times it was thought that a curse lay over Ponza. Here in fact Jupiter sent the terrible Circe to restore order among the inhabitants of Eea, the island that many think may be Ponza, where men were lost in idleness and indolence. And it is precisely here that Ulysses risked stopping his journey and not returning home.

Between legend and history, the island of Ponza has been populated since the Neolithic Age, but its main centers were born under the domination of the Volsci. Phoenicians, Greeks and Etruscans arrived here and the Romans assigned it as a place of confinement, but also as a holiday resort. This is testified by the ruins of Roman villas, the most famous of which is located on the Collina della Madonna and dates back to the first century AD, as well as an aqueduct, tanks (including the Caves of Pilate) and a cistern for the collection of the rainwater, the so-called “Bagno” (bathroom).

During the Middle Ages the island was a thriving religious and commercial center and this thanks to the work of the Benedictine monks, who erected the abbey of Santa Maria. However, the work of the friars was thwarted when, from the ninth century, Ponza was subject to raids by Saracen pirates.

Going forward in history, pirates, such as Khair-ad-Din nicknamed Barbarossa, the hero of the Risorgimento Carlo Pisacane, Turkish, English and Spanish sultans, felt in love with this wonderful island.

Here Mussolini was transferred from the 27th of July until the 7th of August 1943, and Sandro Pertini, Pietro Nenni, Giorgio Amendola and Umberto Terracini were sent here right from him.

Jacques Cousteau, the legendary explorer of the abysses, was also fascinated by the turquoise sea that surrounds Ponza, so much that he sometimes thought he was in the Indian Ocean rather than a few miles from the coasts of Civitavecchia.

A sweet and bewitching sea that of Ponza, where you can let yourself be transported till the natural spectacle that is the arch O ‘Spaccapolpi and then to the Faraglioni di Lucia Rosa, which according to local legend were the scene of the Pontine Shakespearean drama: two lovers, whose relationship was frowned upon by their families, decided to jump off the cliff rather than give up their love.

When it comes to the miracle of nature, it is difficult not to think how much the island of Ponza can correspond to this concept. Its turquoise sea and the caves that many have made to fall in love with are not lacking in the beauty that is recognized by many in the islands of the South Pacific or the Caribbean.

The sea bed, of enchanting beauty and silent custodian of precious treasures trapped over the millennia, is a paradise for diving and underwater photography enthusiasts. Walls covered with gorgonians and red algae, seagrass meadows, rocks and boulders covered with marine flora and inhabited by lively fish fauna, hide Roman ships with their loads still intact, shipwrecks and steamships sunk during the last world war.

Cavities, caves, rocks, coves and bays, as well as being a wonder for the eyes of those who have the opportunity to enjoy them, are also home to a populous fish fauna. From the green fish to the greater weever, passing through short-finned squids, tunas, dumpers, horse mackerel, thresher sharks and sea bass, it can be said that life in the sea has nothing to envy to the world above, where flora and fauna are certainly not less! Between camphor laury and ceraso, laurel trees, holly, bamboo, strawberry trees and Limonium Pontium plants, a plant with delicate purple flowers, Ponza hides species and subspecies of animals that are endemic of the island, therefore admirable only in this area. An example is the Hipparchia sbordonii butterfly, the scorpion Heuscorpius Carpathicus Palmarolae, the “wall lizard” and the “lizard of Zannone”.