The Archipelago of the Pontine Islands in Nature Travelling the Pontine Archipelago, by Folco Quilici and Maurilio Cipparone
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The Archipelago of the Pontine Islands in Nature Travelling the Pontine Archipelago, by Folco Quilici and Maurilio Cipparone REGIONE LAZIO Concept: APT DI LATINA Texts: Folco Quilici and Maurilio Cipparone Translation: The Arts Development Partnership, East Sussex, UK Illustrations: Milo Manara Photographs: Archivio Apt Latina, Fabrizio Ardito, I-BUGA, Adriano Madonna, Paolo Petrignani, Luciano Romano, Sandro Vannini Maps: Leo Pecchioni Graphic design: Idea NaMa Latina Printing: La Stampa S.p.A. Genova 2006 Inter-regional project ‘The island that does not exist’ Law no. 135/2001 – art. 5 – comma 5 – a co-financing of the Ministero Attività Produttive – Direzione Regionale Turismo. The Archipelago of the Pontine Islands Islands in Nature BY Folco Quilici e Maurilio Cipparone CONTENTS A brief geographical note 4 Travelling the Pontine Archipelago by Folco Quilici 6 Zannone and Ventotene, islands in nature by Maurilio Cipparone 20 Useful information 34 Archaeological and other sights 34 Tradition 34 Nature 35 Transport 35 Contact offices and general assistance 35 The Archipelago of the Pontine Islands Palmarola Ponza A brief geographical note The Pontine Islands, known as the Ponziane, com- prise two groups: Ponza, Palmarola, Zannone and Gavi to the northwest and Ventotene and Santo Stefano to the southeast. These groups are separated by about 22 nautical miles. Some 6 km to the south of Ponza the soli- tary rock known as “The Botte” rises from the sea. The geographical coordinates from the meridian of Monte Mario in Rome are northerly latitude 40° 58’ 56” and 40° 47’ 50” and easterly 4 Zannone santo Stefano Ventotene longitude 0° 23 40” and 1° 4’ 50”. The Ponza group of islands looks northeast towards the curving Sabaudia-Circeo peninsula (the shortest distance being between Zannone and the Circeo – 12 nautical miles), while Ventotene faces Gaeta (21 miles distant). Ventotene could be described as the “umbilical” centre of the Tyrrhenian Sea and is also the halfway point between Ponza and Ischia, each 20 miles away. Ponza and Ventotene are populated; the smaller islands are not. Ventotene and Santo Stefano are land and sea conserva- tion areas, supervised by the Ministry of the Environment, administra- tion being in the hands of the Municipality. 5 Travelling the Pontine Archipelago By Folco Quilici n spring, the anticipa- islands turn green, when flower and bud tion is intensified by a add fragrance to the air. I cannot recall a I desire to get the boat year without feeling this urge for the sea, back in the water, and the start of another summer season that make the crossing to the will continue until next autumn’s first Pontine Islands just as the northwest breezes. That I should make smell of land and sea infuse the connection between my yearning one another, when the for the sea and the islands – as one who has visited so many islands in the world – is not only because of their beauty, above and below the water, but because these islands were my first “archipelago”. Ponza, crowned by its uninhabited rocks, Palmarola and Zannone in the wings, and the black stone mono- lith of the “Botte” rising from the deep blue of the high seas as one heads towards Ventotene. My first dives were in the shallows and deeps of those islands; and it was here I learned to use a breath- ing mask. I delighted in the first sensation of putting a foot on a deserted island, magnificent and all my own. I speak of Palmarola, gem of the Archipelago, and for me one of the most beautiful islands ever to have been born of the sea. Here are solitude, silence, emptiness and wonder. Alone with its multicoloured volcanic rocks, its deep and l i m p i d plays of light. At Zannone, also, the waters, Palmarola is a underwater world reflects the reality on mirage of sea beds to the surface: a cover of fine green woods explore and to discover, an above and many escarpments below, island bewitching in its leading down to the seabed, covered by a protected sleep, cradled by mantle of marine vegetation, forests of a whispering and reassur- dense and shimmering sea fans whose ing sea. violet-tipped foliage turns fiery red The sails open with a stiff when we switch on our lamps. gust of wind and the boat As we emerge we find ourselves opposite slips along on a friendly sea. an archaeological ruin, a fishery dating We are sailing round from Roman times, cut into the rocks. It another island, green as the is connected to the sea by an underwater back of a lizard, and we tunnel, accessible by external steps, close drop anchor at Zannone, to the Port of Varo. which is part of the Circeo At Ponza, the overall view and the sur- National Park and super- rounding landscape have changed little vised by forest guards. The since that summer many years ago when lighthouse recalls the old I disembarked from the Anzio mail boat. films of intrigue and On the island I rented a room overlook- adventure. We are in the ing the port. The window gave me a custodian’s house, visiting comprehensive view of the port that for the small natural history me, architecturally speaking is one of museum, before wander- the most beautiful in the world. Many ing the nearby ruins of a islands of the Mediterranean were for- medieval convent. Just merly places of exile. Ponza was one thinking about the life of a such, 2,000 years ago, for important people community in search of such as Agrippina, and again during the God, solemn, without 1920s and 1930s, in the period of Fascism. boundaries, sets the ima- This role, however, had an important gination racing. This tiny positive side in the decades when Italy island universe reaches began to redraw her landscape (too beyond itself, and into a often for the worse) because it saved the mirror-like sea, reflecting island from being damaged as elsewhere onto its surface and way by urbanisation and tourism. down to the seabed. Ponza eventually entered the large and Diving at Palmarola, the colourful circle of Mediterranean crystal waters reflect the tourism, becoming one of the star shadows and lights of attractions, but without losing character extraordinary rock forma- and identity in the process. I have been tions, like those all around coming back to Ponza every year for the island. As it is above the forty years, and the island still awaits me water so it is below - caves, like a girlfriend who never ages and passageways, and magical needs no makeup. Certainly, it has 8 undergone transformations, some far- moved to the mainland, to reaching. From being poor the island has places offering greater secu- become wealthy. From having been its rity. Around 1550, three own unchanging mirror image, now the captains of the flotilla of the island hums with an almost explosive notorious pirate Dragut vitality. We no longer refer to ‘them’, the were out “hunting” in the fishermen and sailors of the island, the Tyrrhenian sea, when they “Ponzesi”, known throughout the discovered in the now Tyrrhenian region for their qualities of deserted islands of the quietness and efficiency. Thinking of Pontine Archipelago a them, and trying to remember their secure base for carrying out advice and their stories, the old boats repairs after storms. The come to mind, their method of fishing islands further afforded an for the Coryphaena hippurus or the passing ideal hideaway from which tuna fish and their old-fashioned way of to launch attacks on passen- gathering coral on the Sardinian coast. A ger vessels – capturing parade of hulls, characters and wit, of cargo, passengers and orders given through clenched teeth. equipment and taking them Even today, going to sea, I well remem- as far away as the “coast of ber these things because fishermen’s say- Barbary” and to Gerba (in ings, though apparently banal, could Tunisia), that lair for pirate become irrefutable wisdom in the right fleets. We can keep our day- context. Their seafaring lore became dreams alive since the island famous long ago - when the Romans, in setting, of hidden bays and difficulties against the Carthaginians secure hideaways, is quite during the Punic wars, sought their sufficient to invoke the help; when, in 1757, after many naval same spirit of adventure, victories against barbaric pirates, ships discovery and challenge. from Ponza, Rome and Naples defeated The wonderful world of the pirate fleet at Palmarola. And when, underwater adventure in the early nineteenth century, the came to the Pontine inhabitants of Ponza became fearsome Archipelago in the late seamen and pirates as well as enemies of 1940s. Sport was first to the Bourbons. arrive in these waters, then Writing about the Mediterranean, I exploration and research, could not resist rereading the accounts, which owed their expansion carefully edited in the eighteenth centu- to the sheer size of the area. ry by the papal marine historian, the Other “islands” dot the Dominican Alberto Guglielmotti, Archipelago as well, still lit- describing the Pontine Islands as being tle known and yet to be suitable as a hideout and for the laying of fully discovered. These are ambushes. The islands, for fear of pirate the submerged islands of incursions, were already abandoned by iron, the remains of vessels the sixteenth century. Even the monks lost during the two world 9 wars – the hulk of the to the northern shore, it was thrown up Corriere di Ponza sunk by a against the rocks of Ponza and began to German submarine on the sink vertically. The prisoners, released 21st of March 1918, off from the hold, were saved along with Zannone, and the fractured the escort and equipment.