Ponza attractions

Ponza's attractions are cliffs, caves and water.

Chiaia di Luna is the famous beach, on the south-west coast — the only one on the island with a mix of fine sand, ringed by a wide cliff sheer above the sea. It is sought out every year by thousands of visitors and divers for the quantity of submarine caves and cliffs, which are found around the rest of the island too.

The Faraglioni di Lucia Rosa are named for a real nineteenth-century tragedy, and the Grotta della Maga Circe, on the west coast between Capo Bianco and Chiaia di Luna, is the island's claim on Homer.

The Roman works are everywhere and protected nowhere: aqueducts — the largest running from Le Forna to Santa Maria — dams, the great cisterns called Piscinae Limariae, the submerged villa and theatre at Punta Madonna, the Grotte di Pilato beneath it, and two long tunnels joining the old port of Santa Maria to the villas, still used by cars.

The town of Ponza itself is a designed object: a curved backdrop of houses on two street levels, laid out under the Bourbons.

And the sea is the main attraction. The jagged volcanic coast makes for an extremely varied underwater environment, and divers come for it every year.