The southern coast
Two hours south of Rome the coast turns from sand into limestone: cliffs, caves at water level, and coves you reach only from a boat.
59 days out11 placesthe nearest is a 1 h 12 drive from Rome
North of Rome the coast is flat and the sea is grey-green. South of the Circeo headland it changes completely: white limestone, cliffs, caves at water level, and towns stacked above coves.
Sperlonga is the famous one — a white hill town above a long beach, with the ruins of Tiberius's villa at one end and, inside a sea cave beside it, the dining room where he ate surrounded by enormous marble sculpture. Gaeta is bigger and more surprising: a mountain split in three by a fissure, a medieval quarter, and a beach the Romans built villas along.
In between is the Circeo, a headland standing alone out of the plain with the Odyssey attached to it — Circe's island, in the geography of the poem — and beyond it the dunes and pine forest at Sabaudia, which is where Romans with taste go in August.
The geography is worth having straight, because the names run together on a map. Coming down from Rome you cross the reclaimed plain, then the Circeo stands up alone out of it with the dune and the four coastal lakes behind. Terracina comes next, with a Roman temple on the headland above the town. Then Sperlonga on its rock, then the long bay to Gaeta and the split mountain at the end of it. That is the whole coast, and it is about an hour from one end to the other.
What to do with a day here depends on whether you want the sea or the rock. The sea means a boat: the caves and coves along this stretch have no road to them, and the boat trips out of Sperlonga, Gaeta and Terracina are how you see the half of the coast that is not reachable on foot. The rock means the towns, the Roman sites and the Lepini ridge behind, which is twenty minutes inland and completely different country.
A word on the season, since this is the page where it matters most. July and August are when Rome comes down here, the car parks fill by ten and the beaches are laid out with umbrellas. September is the month: the water is at its warmest, the towns have emptied, and the boats still run. May and June are the other good window.
And a word on the drive, because two hours each way is the real cost. Leave early, make it the whole day, and consider staying the night rather than driving the coast road back in the dark — this is one of the directions that genuinely repays a second morning.
Sperlonga, Gaeta, Terracina, the Circeo and Sabaudia, with the boats, the caves and the beaches on each.
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In the airA flying club founded in 1952 at Latina Scalo airfield that says it offers experience flights alongside its pilot training.
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With your handsAn organic farm at Borgo Grappa near Latina with a dedicated visits and tastings page.
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With your handsFamily winery of the Pontine plain, with vineyards between the Circeo national park and the hills of Ninfa.
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With your handsGuided visit of the cellar at Le Ferriere with a tasting of the vintages available, in Italian or, on request, in English, French or German.
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With your handsAbout an hour and a half: a tour of the estate, then a sommelier leads a tasting of five of the winery's labels paired with local food, a hand-made tarallo, sheep's milk caciott…
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In the old stonesA cathedral at Latina, built by Oriolo Frezzotti.
Free — nothing to pay
Just turn up
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Off roadRental of small automatic 110cc racing motorcycles on the Latina circuit, sold by the minute or by the day.
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Off roadRental karting on a circuit on the Via Pontina at Latina.
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With your handsOrganic winery near Le Ferriere with an indoor and outdoor tasting space, offering guided tastings, picnics and dinners in the vineyard, matching the wines with local cooking.
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On the waterA small water park on the edge of Latina, built around children: slides, a spray park, a shallow lagoon and shaded lawns for the adults.
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On the trailCivic museum in the former Casa Balilla in Latina, dedicated to the artist Duilio Cambellotti: water and fountains, the rural schools of the Roman countryside and the Pontine pl…
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On the trailA park-museum on the reclaimed Pontine plain with around fifty thousand objects across several pavilions: farm life before the drainage, the drainage works themselves, and the S…
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On the trailRegional museum in the former Opera Nazionale Combattenti building in Latina, with thousands of objects across five sections: life before the drainage, malaria, the agrarian tra…
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With your handsThe farm visit plus a tasting of what the dairy makes that day: ricotta, burrata, smoked and plain ovolina, stracciatella and smoked scamorza, all from buffalo milk.
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With your handsVisit to a working buffalo farm and dairy at Pontinia: the stalls where the animals are milked, the energy systems, and the dairy where the cheese-making steps can be watched.
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With your handsThe same farm and dairy visit, extended with a tasting of what the dairy makes that day: buffalo ricotta, burrata, smoked ovolina, stracciatella and scamorza.
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With your handsBe there for the 8:30 milking and the 9:00 curd: the timetable is the tour.
€15 per person
Books on agricolacirce.it
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On the trailThe Pro Loco of Pontinia runs the MAP, the museum of the Pontine plain: the story of how a malarial marsh south of Rome was drained in the 1930s and turned into farmland, told t…
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With your handsA farm at Sabaudia, on the edge of the Circeo, that receives visitors for tastings of its own labels and direct sales.
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On the waterCanoes and kayaks hired out on the lago di Paola, the coastal lagoon behind the Sabaudia dune inside the Circeo national park.
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With your handsA winery at Borgo Vodice, between Sabaudia and Terracina, inside the Circeo national park area, with a shop and a guided cellar visit.
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With your handsGuided visit of the estate that makes Moscato di Terracina, ending with a tasting lunch at the estate's own restaurant.
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In the old stonesA fountain at Sabaudia.
Free — nothing to pay
Just turn up — open air, any hour
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On the trailOne of the three guiding bodies listed by the Circeo national park.
See the dayThe sea caves and coves along this stretch have no road to them. Boats, snorkelling and diving are how you see the best of it.
Closest to Rome first. Never by who pays us.
On the waterA boat leaves the marina of San Felice Circeo and goes right around the Circeo headland, passing its caves, beaches and coves.
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On the waterDay trips out to the Pontine islands to dive Ponza, Palmarola and Zannone, including the wreck at Punta Papa.
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On the waterThe centre dives the eleven kilometres of coast between Torre Fico and Terracina, on rock formations and posidonia meadows.
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On the waterThe boat leaves the port of Terracina at 7:00 and comes back at 17:00.
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On the waterForty caves along the Circeo promontory, twelve aboard, two hours and a quarter.
€40 per person
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On the waterA day spent aboard a working fishing boat out of Porto Badino, with coastal exploration, tasting of the catch cooked in the traditional way, sport fishing and swimming in places…
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On the waterKitesurf course for people who have never flown a kite, run on the beach at km 106 of the Pontina road.
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On the waterStand-up paddle lessons and board hire on the Terracina shore, on flat water or in the waves.
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On the waterWindsurf tuition on the Terracina shore, from first-timers to experienced sailors, with personal lessons available.
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On the waterAn hour and a half out of the harbour to the Grotta Azzurra, with a swim stop.
Books on Sperlonga Escursioni
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On the waterGuided mini-cruises of two to six hours along the coast between Sperlonga, Gaeta and San Felice Circeo.
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On the waterBoat trips along the Sperlonga coast run by a local skipper.
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On the waterI Viaggi di Kilroy is a licensed travel agency with an office in the centre of Gaeta that sells its own excursions, sea and land, under the Visit Gaeta name.
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On the waterHalf-day boat trip along the Riviera di Ulisse between Gaeta and Sperlonga.
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On the waterA boat leaves from Gaeta and runs along the headland.
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On the waterBoat trip along the Gaeta coast with a stop for swimming.
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On the waterCast off at 9:30 for the Blue Grotto of the Dolls, snorkel kit on board.
€60 per person
Books on Gaeta Escursioni
See the dayTwenty minutes inland the mountains start, with hill towns on them and a garden built through a ruined town at Ninfa.
Closest to Rome first. Never by who pays us.
With your handsTasting of three wines from the native Nero Buono and Bellone grapes, served with bruschetta, cheeses and cured meats, at the cooperative founded in Cori in 1947.
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With your handsA cooperative founded in 1947 on the slopes below the town of Cori, working the native grapes of the area, Bellone and Nero Buono.
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With your handsGuided tour through the vineyard and the barrel cellar, then a tasting of the sparkling wine and the two DOC wines of the house, served with local food products.
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On the trailGuided walk through Cori, taking in the church built over a Roman temple and the birthplace of Saint Thomas of Cori.
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On the trailGuided hike through one of the finest beech forests of the Lepini to the 1,378 m summit of Monte Lupone, with a view over the whole range, the Pontine plain, Circeo and the Pont…
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On the trailA guided walk through the garden built inside the ruins of the medieval town of Ninfa, among watercourses, bridges and plants from several continents.
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With your handsA walk through the vineyards and a guided visit of the cellar of an organic estate at Cori, followed by a tasting of three wines paired with local products.
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With your handsA three-hour terracotta workshop in the studio of the artist Martino Antocchi: mixing clay, learning basic modelling, making natural engobe colours and burnishing with olive oil…
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On horsebackA horse ride through the woods above Cori or among the estate vineyards, with the Fontana del Prato riding school, followed by a guided cellar visit and tasting.
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On the trailMuseum housed in the monumental Augustinian convent of Sant'Oliva, telling thirty-five centuries of history of the Lepini mountains over three floors and about five hundred orig…
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On the trailGuided group walk in the hundred-hectare re-naturalised wetland next to the Garden of Ninfa, led by naturalist guides of LIPU, the Italian bird protection league.
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With your handsA small Cori estate of vineyards and olive groves run by three generations, working the native Bellone, Malvasia Puntinata and Nero Buono grapes.
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In the old stonesA church at Cori.
Free — nothing to pay
Just turn up
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On the trailGuided ring walk on Monte Semprevisa taking in the karst features of the massif, including the Pozzo Comune and the Abisso Consolini shafts seen from the surface, and the ridge …
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On the trailGuided hike through the beech forest of Acqua di Mezzavalle to the 1,421 m summit crowned by the cross raised in 1901 in honour of Pope Leo XIII, a native of Carpineto Romano, w…
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On horsebackA social and teaching farm and equestrian tourism centre at about 500 metres in the Lepini mountains, three kilometres out of Carpineto Romano, reached by a mile-and-a-half turn…
A sports club — you join them for the day
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On the trailCivic museum inside Palazzo Aldobrandini, at the highest point of the old town, with nine sections on the history of Carpineto Romano from the medieval fief to the Aldobrandini …
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With your handsAn organic and biodynamic olive farm on the hills above Roccasecca dei Volsci, in the Colline Pontine DOP area between the Lepini mountains and the sea.
See the dayDriving time from the middle of Rome, on the road network and without traffic. It tells you whether the day stands up; it is not a timetable.
Getting there
The day stays yours: you leave when you want, stop where you want, and come back when the light goes.
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See prices on LocalrentNo parking to find, no wrong turns, and you leave when the day is done.
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See prices on Welcome PickupsFor a day trip, Sperlonga and the Circeo coast, about two hours south — white sand, clear water and a town to eat in. Closer to the city, Santa Marinella and Fregene are the practical options rather than the beautiful ones.
Yes, particularly out of high summer. The town is a white maze above the sea, the beach is long, and the villa and cave museum at the end of it is one of the strangest Roman sites anywhere.
Larger, less pretty at first sight and more rewarding: a split mountain with a chapel wedged in the fissure, a medieval quarter, good beaches and boats out to the coast towards Sperlonga.
The coastal towns are reachable and compact, but the beaches, the caves and the sites are spread along a shoreline. This is the classic case where a driver for the day pays for itself in what you actually get to see.
Around two hours by road, with the time on each card calculated on the road network without traffic. Gaeta is a little further, Terracina and the Circeo a little closer. The whole coast is about an hour end to end once you are down there.
The dune at Sabaudia, if you want fifteen kilometres of sand with nothing built along it. Sperlonga's bays, if you want a town to eat in at the end. The coves around Gaeta and the Circeo, if you have a boat, because they have no road down to them.
A white hill town above a long beach, and at one end of it the ruins of Tiberius's villa with a sea cave beside it — the dining room where he ate, surrounded by enormous marble sculpture, now in the museum on the site. It is one of the strangest Roman places anywhere.
It is bigger and less immediately pretty than Sperlonga and it rewards more. The mountain above the town is split by a fissure with a chapel wedged in it, there is a medieval quarter and a castle that ended its working life as a military prison, and the boats run from here along the whole coast.
The towns themselves are reachable and compact, but the beaches, the sites and the boat departures are spread along a shoreline. This is the clearest case on the site where a hire car or a driver for the day decides how much of the coast you actually see.
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