A Beautiful Place - Ponza

Ponza is the largest island of the Italian Pontine Island archipelago, located in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It's the remains of a caldera rim of an extinct volcano; Ponza is a crescent shaped island with one large beach called Spiaggia di Chiaia di Luna and a few small beaches and has a mostly rocky coast made of kaolin and rock.

The island was inhabited from neolithic through to Roman times. According to local legends, Ponza was named after Pontius Pilate ( a Roman governor), from Latin “Pontia" that means "Land of Bridges" ( in fact, Ponza has many natural arches and natural bridges) or maybe from the Greek “pontos” which means “sea".

Ponza is famed for its grottoes created by the Etruscans. The island has many archeological ruins visible everywhere, including Egyptian, Canaanite, Greek, and Phoenician necropoli ruins, but also Etruscan and Roman ruins like villas.

Ponza's biggest industry is tourism followed by boat building, boat repair and fishing. The local economy is in a downturn partly due to the severe restrictions on commercial fishing furthermore, many of the original inhabitants of Ponza are now leaving the island and never return.

I spent a week in Ponza with my family and a friend of mine about 5 or 6 years ago: we stayed in a beautiful flat just by the sea in Feola Cove ( “Cala Feola") and we rented a motorboat to visit the amazing isolated beaches and the nearby islands. The water was fantastic, we swam near shoals of fish and we fished for octopus. The villages were so picturesque because every house was painted a different colour. And what about sunrises and sunsets? They were simply breathtaking! I’d really love to go back there someday.

If you like swimming, fishing, visiting ruins or just laying down and tanning, I suggest you to go to Ponza!

Cala Feola, here you can see the flat where I stayed, it is the big white house in the top-centre of the photo. After just 40 steps, we reached the sea!