Pontine

The Pontine Islands are a group of islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Lazio, Italy. Around 300 BC, the Romans established their first colony on the Pontine Archipelago on the island of Ventotene, where they built the spectacular harbor at Pertuso Point, which is today one of the great tourist attractions. When it was transformed into a golden cage for the female inmates of the Julius-Claudia dynasty, it became a prison island.

During the Fascist era, the "colony of political confinement" established on the nearby island of Ponza in 1928 was transferred to Ventotene because it was smaller and simpler to guard.

• Agrippina the Younger, mother to the future Roman emperor, Nero, was exiled to the Pontine Islands by her brother, the then Roman emperor, Caligula.
• People like Carmine Crocco, the most important brigand during the Italian unification and the anarchist Gaetano Bresci, who killed King Umberto I were imprisoned on Santo Stefano Prison on tiny isle.