Torre Astura is a fortified coastal tower in the territory of Nettuno, about ten kilometres south-east of the centre. The name may come from the Latin astur, the goshawk. In Roman times Astura was a landing place at the mouth of the river of the same name, on the via Severiana, with villas from the first century BC: one belonged to Cicero, and the last stages of his flight from Mark Antony took place here. Between the end of the Republic and the start of the Empire a villa was built partly on the mainland and partly on an artificial island, with a large fishpond whose remains are still partly visible.
What to see
The fortress rose on the Roman walls in the sea. Around 1140 the site passed to Tolomeo of the counts of Tusculum and in 1193 to the Frangipane, who to defend themselves from the Saracens built a sea fortress with a pentagonal tower, surrounded by water and linked to the land by an arched brick bridge. In 1268 Conradin of Swabia, defeated at Tagliacozzo, sought refuge here, but Giovanni Frangipane handed him over to Charles of Anjou, who had him beheaded in Naples in today's piazza del Mercato.
In 1426 the fortress passed to the Colonna, who gave it its present look and in 1594 sold it to Pope Clement VIII Aldobrandini; it then went to the Borghese, who handed it to the municipality in the nineteen-seventies. From the tower the view stretches from the Circeo to Anzio. Around it the coast is low and sandy, with high dunes where marram grass and sea daffodil grow, holm and cork oak woods and old pine forests.
Visiting
The area lies within a military zone of the Ministry of Defence, the former Nettuno firing range: according to the sources it can be reached only at certain times of year, from the Acciarella provincial road towards Latina and then on foot from a car park. Dates and access arrangements should be checked beforehand.
Our editors' tip
The site has been a set for many films: in 1961 20th Century Fox built the palace of Alexandria here for Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, and in 2004 Wes Anderson shot some scenes of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou here.
