Experience the best of Gaeta

Gaeta occupies a rocky peninsula on the gulf that bears its name, where a medieval town of steep lanes is crowned by the Angevin-Aragonese castle. The cathedral's bell tower, from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, shows Norman and Arab influence, and the sea walls look over a harbour of fishing boats and yachts. Pope Pius IX took refuge in the town in 1848.

On Monte Orlando, a wooded headland park, stands the mausoleum of the Roman general Lucius Munatius Plancus, and the sanctuary of the Montagna Spaccata is a chapel beside a deep cleft in the rock said to have opened when Christ died. Sperlonga, with a Roman villa and a grotto of the emperor Tiberius, is a short drive along the coast, and ferries sail from the nearby ports to the Pontine islands of Ponza and Ventotene.

Tiella di Gaeta, a covered savoury pie filled with squid, octopus or vegetables, and Gaeta olives, black and mild, are the local food, with seafood pasta along the waterfront. Beaches such as Serapo are crowded in summer, and the rest of the year the town is calm.