Mediterranean wilderness at Zannone Island

Zannone Island:
Area:
0,9 sq Km belonging to the Circeo National Park
Position:
40 57’ 90’’ N 13 02’ 80’’ E
Distance from mainland:
15 miles (28 Km) from Circeo peninsula.

Residents:
Occasionally only few park rangers working as natural reserve wardens.
Shape:
Hilly and very green with typical Mediterranean woodland with a regular coastline without bays or large beaches.
Roads:
only few pathways
Transportation available on the island:
only walking.

The best way to visit Zannone is also by sailing or with a traditional fishing boat possibly with a low edge to appreciate the beauty of its sea. The pristine waters are so clear that there seems to be a mirror between the surface of the sea and its depths. Besides being a plant paradise, Zannone is also a crucial oasis for thousands of migrant birds, which stop here during the passage periods and fill it up with joyful noises. Among the 200 species detected, there are some real rarities, like the hawk of the queen, the sakeret, the white storks and the reddish swallow.

        Click on Photos to see the photografies of the Reserve

The best time to find the sea is when the mistral is blowing; this happens very often in spring and summer in the Pontine islands. From the small island of Gavi at the northern end of the island of Ponza, the route brings directly to " Il Varo" the only place to land where the sea is calm on Zannone. From here, there is a small path, made by the monks plunges the visitors in the

Mediterranean scents and colors of the rosemary and of the heather. Zannone has a surface of little more than 0.38 sq. miles and lies approximately 6.5 miles from the port of Ponza. It is part of the Circeo National Park because of its beauty and the integrity of its environments. The island is uninhabited but supervised by the Forestry Service and patrolled by state park rangers. There are no tourist facilities and camping or overnight stays are prohibited although no special permit is required to visit the island. This little island is covered mainly with a thick vegetation of Mediterranean scrub, but there is also a small ilex-wood. Especially in autumn, Zannone covers up its slopes with intense pink color of the heather, together with the pure white of the myrtle and of the lentisk. Owing to the century-long isolation, Zannone managed to preserve some exclusive plants like the small colonies of the cistus, the centaury and the lavender, which adds the purple color of its flowers to the orange red of the branches of the euphorbia and to the yellow of the brooms.

        Click on Photos to see the photografies of the Reserve