San Felice Circeo

San Felice Circeo sits at about 100 meters on the inland flank of the promontory, the limestone mass that closes the south end of the old Pontine Marshes. The Romans called the ancient city here Circeii; the treaty between Carthage and Rome in 509 BC mentions it by name. The cape is still called Promontorio del Circeo, after the sorceress who turned Odysseus's men into pigs.

The centro storico is small, built inland and above the water rather than on it, with the coast reached by a road that drops from the borgo to the beaches below. The baronial palace adjoins the tower on the town's small piazza, the medieval heart of the fortified center, while the cave on the promontory's south face sits apart from both, closer to the sea than to the old town. Below the borgo, the coast runs into the beaches of the Parco Nazionale del Circeo, with views across the Gulf of Gaeta to the Pontine Islands. What holds the town together is the promontory itself: a single limestone landmark that has given the place its name, its ancient treaty mention, its myth, and its oldest human trace, while the borgo that grew on its flank stayed small enough to be walked in an afternoon.

From Rome (FCO), about 2h 11m by car.

Naples / Salerno (NAP) is about 2h 27m away.

By car from the centre of Naples 2h 32m or Salerno 3 hours.

Coming by train into Latina? San Felice Circeo is about 50 minutes away by road.