The island of the Manifesto and the Roman port
In the Pontine archipelago, about 50 kilometres off the coast of Lazio, Ventotene is a tiny island of volcanic origin, less than three kilometres long, with a quiet, colourful village, coves of dark sand and rocks and a crystal-clear sea, protected by a marine reserve. Its history is extraordinary. In Roman times, the Emperor Augustus built here a luxurious villa, Villa Giulia, whose remains can be visited at the tip of the island, and where he exiled his daughter Julia, accused of adultery; other women of the imperial family were also confined here. The Romans also carved into the tufa an extraordinary port, still in use today, with quays, mooring rings and warehouses dug into the rock, and an ingenious system of cisterns for collecting rainwater.
In front of Ventotene lies the islet of Santo Stefano, with the imposing Bourbon prison built in 1795 with a horseshoe-shaped "panopticon" plan, in which every cell could be watched from the centre, which remained in use until 1965 and is being restored. During the Fascist period, Ventotene was a place of confinement for political opponents: here, in 1941, Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi, with the contribution of Eugenio Colorni, wrote the "Manifesto di Ventotene", "For a Free and United Europe", considered one of the founding texts of the European federalist idea and of the European Union. Ventotene is also an important stopover for migratory birds, which rest here during their crossing of the Mediterranean, and a birdwatching observatory monitors them.
Tip: visit the Roman port and Villa Giulia; take a boat trip around Santo Stefano to see the prison from the sea.
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