This more than 100-acre stetch of Mediterranean woodland, located in the town of Anzio, is one of the few surviving wild patches along the coast of Italy’s Lazio region. This location is named after a watchtower that watches over the headland, upon which, a Roman maritime villa once existed during the 1st-3rd centuries.

Part of the villa’s building materials were used to design the tower originally known as Torre delle Caldane, one of several watchtowers constructed along the coast to protect the region from piracy. The tower was strengthened by Marcantonio Colonna, a famous admiral of the Catholic fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

Below and behind the tower are several prings, originally used by the local communities to extract sulfur. Farther behind the small woods of holm and corn oaks are traces of World War II foxholes.