Ponza
Also, Pontia means "Land of Bridges" in Latin, a name which could have been applied for Ponza's many naturally occurring arches and bridge-like landforms.
For example, it was discovered that the harbor floor of nearby Pozzuoli had sunk and risen several times in the last 5,000 years, revealing sunken Roman temples.
The tallest hill on the island, called Monte Guardia, still has the rotting stumps of the extinct giant trees over eight feet wide.
Today it is known as Grotta della Maga Circe on the west side of the island, between Capo Bianco and Chiaia di Luna beach.
She was said to have lived in this cave in the winter months, spending the summer atop nearby Mount Circe on the mainland of Italy.
On the west side of Ponza is the Grotta di Ulisse O Del Sangue, which means Cave of Ulysses or the Blood.
The Grotto or cave is almost directly underneath the hill/peninsula called Il Belvedere, which has the Giardino Botanico Ponziano a botanical garden with a villa and the remains of a castle.
During Roman times, Nero Caesar, eldest brother of Caligula, was deported to Ponza in AD 29, where he was put to death the following year.
Two of his sisters, Agrippina the Younger (mother of the emperor Nero) and Julia Livilla, were exiled to Ponza in AD 39 for their complicity in a plot to overthrow Caligula.
A similar mansion with the same name was also built on nearby Ventotene for Emperor Augustus' exiled daughter, Julia the Elder.
During the two decades of fascism, Ponza and nearby Ventotene served as a prison for political opponents of Benito Mussolini's regime.
The Ethiopian Prince Regent and military leader, Ras Immiru, who was captured by the Italian Army in 1936, was imprisoned in a house in Santa Maria.
The island is well known for the tragic story of Lucia Rosa who threw herself into the Tyrrhenian Sea rather than being forced to marry a man against her wishes.
], engineers working on an ancient Roman tunnel that connected the harbour part of Ponza to the neighborhood of Santa Maria used explosives to dig a conduit nearby — they were supposed to use a chisel.
The Italian National Park Service has installed steel cable netting to prevent further rock falls and deaths.
It has many odd natural rock formations, one looks like a monk, another looks like a giant pair of work pants, Spaccapurpo (Arco Naturale O Spaccapolpi), another looks like a patch of flowers and another one looks like mushrooms, another looks like a horseman.
It has several small villages, among them are Commune di Ponza, Santa Maria and Le Forna.
Ponza has a mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa) with hot and dry summers combined with mild and rainy winters.
Depicting a local Etrurian consul, it is now displayed in a museum in Naples behind protective plastic, where it was reunited with its head.
Celebrities who have vacationed on Ponza include Kirk Douglas, his son Michael Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Burt Lancaster, Gina Lollobrigida, Elsa Martinelli and Sophia Loren, Jacques Cousteau and his son, Philippe Cousteau, who filmed several documentaries in the area.
