Giardino del Faro

We owe the first use of this area as a public park to Luigi Aguet, who donated the land to the Municipality of San Felice Circeo. The staircase down to the belvedere below is modern, while the steps carved into the rock leading down to the sea are older and were used mainly by the Navy to supply the Lighthouse. There is no real picnic area here, but it is one of the most famous viewpoints of the Circeo. The vegetation reminds us that we are in the Mediterranean scrub: looking at the crowns of the plants, you notice they lean almost perfectly in the direction of the prevailing winds, one of the many strategies these plants use to withstand weather that is not always kind. They are mainly myrtle, phillyrea, mastic, curry plant, juniper and rosemary, which release their intense scent into the air, creating the typical fragrance of the Mediterranean scrub. Splendid agaves, prickly pears and tree spurges make the landscape even more striking. The tree spurge (Euphorbia dendroides), which grows wild here, is the only tree-like member of the spurge family (the many other species are all herbaceous) in the Italian flora and one of the largest in Europe. The name of both the genus and the family comes from the Greek physician Euphorbos, who identified its many medicinal properties. Remember, though, that it is toxic: the latex that oozes from any wound is very irritating, and picking it is discouraged, not least because we are in the Circeo National Park. Flowering from November to April, it gives the landscape striking colour changes thanks to the shifting colours it takes on through the seasons. In winter it is green, in full activity; in spring it turns yellow, while other plants of the same species are still green. When temperatures rise and the days grow longer, red “cushions” appear alongside the green and yellow ones: these are the first plants to enter their resting phase, changing colour before shedding their leaves. In midsummer the promontory is coloured simply by the greyish-white stems and branches, before turning light green again in autumn.