ccording to legend, the sorceress Circe, described in Homer's Odyssey, used to live on this promontory in the south of Latium, a two-hour drive from Rome. The promontory of Circeo is situated halfway between Anzio and Gaeta, guarding the western limit of the Bay of Terracina. It rises between the sea and a plain where grapevines are known to have always grown abundantly, especially in antiquity, when this plain constituted one of Rome's most important sources of wine. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area to the north of the promontory turned into marshland, damaging its production of wine.
Under Fascism, the entire area was reclaimed. This led to the recovery of Circeo's winegrowing activities. In that period, many colons were brought in from Romagna, Veneto and Friuli to settle in the newly reclaimed land. They brought with them from back home their winemaking traditions and new varieties of grapevines, among which Merlot and Sangiovese eventually prevailed.
This led to a great social change and also to a development of the local winemaking tradition that was quite unlike what was taking place elsewhere in Latium.
This page was written by Stefano Milioni. Background image and most photos in this section courtesy of Giuliano Bugialli, all right reserved (see Copyright and Credits).
ccording to legend, the sorceress Circe, described in Homer's Odyssey, used to live on this promontory in the south of Latium, a two-hour drive from Rome. The promontory of Circeo is situated halfway between Anzio and Gaeta, guarding the western limit of the Bay of Terracina. It rises between the sea and a plain where grapevines are known to have always grown abundantly, especially in antiquity, when this plain constituted one of Rome's most important sources of wine. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area to the north of the promontory turned into marshland, damaging its production of wine.