With its vast and varied territory, the Circeo National Park has much to offer not only to nature lovers. History, archeology, education, tourism, sport, food and wine, there are many ways to experience the park.
The Dunes –
In the summer the coastal strip is frequented by thousands of tourists due to the wide beaches and the splendid sea, but in spring the moment in which the Dune shows us its most spectacular side: the luxuriant bloom transforms it into a multicoloured mosaic in which the yellow of the Leguminosae and the pink of the Silene shine , which inebriate us with their perfumes. In any period of the year however the dune is the ideal place to make exciting encounters with the fauna that populates the coastal area.
The Forest –
What today is known as Selva di Circe , is one of the few best preserved and most extensive examples of plain forest, or plain, existing in Italy . It covers about 3,300 hectares and maintains many peculiarities of the Selva di Terracina, the ancient coastal forest which, before the reclamation of the 1930s, occupied over 11,000 hectares. In the Circeo National Park Forest there are three areas of the Integral Nature Reserve: the Piscina delle Bagnature, the Piscina della Gattuccia and the Lestra della Coscia. The Forest can be visited all year round, through a dense network of paths, both pedestrian and cycle paths.
The Circeo Promontory –
Wherever you are in the Pontine Plain and in whatever direction you are going, your gaze will come upon the Circeo Promontory, a 541m-high limestone relief, the very icon of the park, with a profile that has always triggered the human imagination, making it into the over the centuries, home of gods, magicians and heroes. The Promontory is the most characteristic landscape element of the entire Pontine area.
The Wetlands –
Close to and parallel to the Duna Litoranea, there is a wet and lagoon environment consisting of four successive coastal lakes – Lake Sabaudia or di Paola, Lake Caprolace, Lake Monaci and Lake Fogliano – and from Wetlands , seasonally flooded.
The surrounding lakes and wetlands constitute the most important marshy ecosystem in Italy and form a territorial complex declared a “Wetland of International Interest” under the Ramsar Convention (Iran 1971)The location of the Park in a geographical area coinciding with the main migratory routes , in fact, makes it particularly suitable for the parking of many species of birds.
The brackish lagoons and the seasonally marshy areas of fresh water of the Circeo National Park offer, in fact, a particularly suitable environment for the various needs of stopping, wintering or nesting of numerous species of migratory birds. There are over 260 species of waterfowl, which populate the lakes and lakes of the Park in spring and autumn. A pair of binoculars and a good manual is all you need to experience rare and exciting sightings.
The Island of Zannone –
The Island of Zannone is part of the Archipelago of the Pontine Islands , with Ventotene, Ponza, Palmarola, Santo Stefano and Gavi. It is the northernmost of all and only the third to last by extension (103 hectares, equal to about 0.9 km²).
Zannone is the only one among the Ponzian islands to be constituted not only by volcanic rocks, but also by metamorphic and sedimentary rocks dating back to over 200 million years ago.
Thanks to its remarkable natural importance, in 1979 it became part of the Circeo National Park , becoming its insular appendix geographically.
Although small, Zannone has, in fact, interesting floristic features, preserved over the centuries, thanks to the very low human presence.
