land is a tourist attraction with big sandy beaches like Chiaia di Luna or Half Moon Beach. The Spiaggia Chiaia di Luna or Half Moon Beach is now permanently closed due to falling rocks from the huge collapsing cliff above. Several tourists were killed a few years ago while sunbathing on the beach. The Italian National Park Service has installed huge steel cable netting to prevent further rock falls and deaths. The Roman Galleria or Roman Tunnel that connected the beach to the road is now closed because of collapsing Roman brickwork. Many beaches that were very popular are now permanently closed, because falling rock from overhead cliffs have killed vacationers.
The island became part of the Kingdom of Italy in the mid-19th century and it is now part of the Republic of Italy. The island's isolation destined it to serve as a penal colony by various regimes. During the two decades of fascism, Ponza and the nearby Ventotene, served as a prison for political opponents of Benito Mussolini's regime. The Ethiopian leader Ras Immiru, who was captured by the Italian Army in 1936, was imprisoned in a house in Santa Maria. Mussolini himself was imprisoned on the island for several weeks after being overthrown and arrested in 1943.
The island is well known for the tragic story of Lucia Rosa who threw herself into the Tyrrhenian Sea rather than being forced to marry a man against her wishes. She is viewed by many women around the world as a martyr for women's rights and symbol for human rights.
A few years ago engineers working on an ancient Roman tunnel that connected the harbour part of Ponza to the neighborhood of Santa Maria, used explosives to dig a conduit nearby — they were supposed to use a chisel. The explosive shock shattered and destroyed this 2,100 year old Roman Gallery Tunnel. The Tunnel that connects Ponza with Santa Maria is now repaired, but many residents complain that it does not look like it used to, with steel reinforced concrete in
