he two Rivieras, separated by the suggestive Torre Truglia, present an extraordinary glance. The Riviera di Levante extends up to the Grotta di Tiberio, while the western one laps the lower part of Sperlonga.
The landscape is enriched by two mirrors of fresh water called the eyes of Sperlonga and they are the Lungo lake, separated from the sea by a short cordon of dunes and the lake of S. Puoto.
Perched on the spit of land of Monte San Magno, it boasts mythical origins. According to some scholars, in fact, not far from its coasts, stood Amiclae, the mysterious city founded by the Laconians.
But it was the Romans who discovered it at the end of the Republican age, creating magnificent residences, productive and otium epicenters, attracted by the beauty of the place and the mild climate.
The Emperor Tiberius deserves the credit for having built an imposing villa, which also included a large cave, in which valuable marble works that celebrated the deeds of Ulysses were placed.
The numerous natural cavities, in Latin “speluncae”, including the one used by the emperor, will determine the name of the future town: Sperlonga.
After the fall of Rome, towards the sixth century, the ruins of the imperial villa served as a refuge for the coastal populations persecuted by malaria and by the continuous attacks of the pirates who infested the Tyrrhenian Sea.
To protect themselves from the raids, which preyed on the coasts in waves, some watchtowers were built.
Everything was useless and the small town was razed to the ground in August 1534 by the hordes of Kaireddin Barbarossa, a Turkish pirate and admiral in the service of the Ottoman Empire.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sperlonga took on its current characteristic structure in the shape of a tortoise and was enriched with churches and stately palaces.
Agriculture flourished again, but failed to get the economy off the ground. The great development will come only after the construction of the Terracina-Gaeta coastal road, opened in 1957.
The new road introduced the ancient seaside village and the precious marble collection of Villa Tiberio, launching Sperlonga as one of the most popular tourist and cultural destinations in Lazio.
A labyrinth of alleys, whitewashed houses, remains of ancient buildings, beaches on the blue Tyrrhenian, lakes and mountains.
All this can be found in Sperlonga, in Lazio, in the province of Latina, an ancient fishing village built on a promontory and surrounded by the sea, considered among the clearest in Italy, so much so that it has been awarded the Flag since 1998 Blue.
Walking through the alleys of its historic center, sudden glimpses of the blue sea open up, on one side the east beach and the Grotta di Tiberio on the other, on the other you can see the long west beach and the Circeo promontory.
Originally in the Middle Ages, four towers were built to defend themselves from the Saracens, by order of the viceroy Don Pietro di Toledo: the Central Tower and the Torre del Nibbio, are today incorporated between the houses of the town, giving that perched and winding aspect that is a characteristic of Sperlonga.
The Truglia Tower with a quadrangular plan and sturdy lateral buttresses stands on the promontory at the entrance to the marina.
Erected on the ruins of a previous Roman tower, it was razed to the ground only two years later.
Rebuilt in 1611, it was again demolished by the Turks a few years later, to be put back on its feet the following century as a lookout post.
From 1870 to 1969 it hosted the Guardia di Finanza.
The Capovento Tower was also part of the defensive system, a few kilometers south of the town, on the overhang of the same name, also used as a customs post.
Beyond the center of the village, all white, the Towers and La Villa di Tiberio with its beautiful Grotto and the Museum, the Church of S. Mariae de Speluncae, the beaches on the sea, the lake, the sheer headlands, the cliffs for climbers, the neighboring towns with parks, castles and abbeys from Montecassino to Fossanova, try to reach Terracina to see the Temple of Jupiter Anxur.
Towards the south also Gaeta is a city that offers a lot for vacationers and, for those who have time it is very nice to go up the coast to the Circeo.
