Experience the best of Terracina

Terracina lies where the flat Pontine plain ends and the mountains reach the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Romans, who knew it as Tarracina, ran the Appian Way along the foot of the cliff and cut a vast notch through the rock at Pisco Montano to keep the road beside the water. In the lower town, the cathedral of San Cesareo stands on the old Roman forum.

High above the town, the arched terraces of the Temple of Jupiter Anxur look over the sea toward the Circeo headland and the Pontine Islands. To the north-west, Circeo National Park protects dunes, small lakes and coastal forest, and ferries to the island of Ponza sail from the harbour in the warmer months. The plain behind was marshland until it was drained in the 1930s.

Fish and shellfish dominate the harbour restaurants, while the reclaimed farmland behind grows kiwi fruit, vegetables and olives, with buffalo mozzarella made close by. A long sandy beach runs west of the port, and bathing begins in late spring.