A Private Sailing Week in the Tyrrhenian

From Porto Ercole to Ponza — a quieter Italian charter route, for the traveller who has done the headline coasts and wants the islands between them.

There is a stretch of the central Tyrrhenian, from the Argentario peninsula in southern Tuscany down to the Pontine Islands off the Lazio coast, that the international charter market has not yet found in any meaningful sense. The boats that ply these waters in August are largely Italian, the captains are largely from Naples or Anzio, and the anchorages — Giglio, Giannutri, Ponza, Palmarola, Ventotene — remain in the condition of seasonal-but-not-saturated that the more famous coasts lost some years ago. For the traveller who has done the Amalfi and the Costa Smeralda and is looking for the next quieter Italian charter, this is the route we increasingly recommend.

Why This Stretch

The central Tyrrhenian has, for charter purposes, three particular advantages. First, the geography is more compact than the Amalfi or the Sardinian routes. The full passage from Porto Ercole to Ponza is approximately a hundred and twenty nautical miles, which is comfortable for a seven-day cruise with several days at anchor at each end and one or two passages of moderate length. Second, the islands themselves are differentiated in character. Giglio is wooded and low-key; Giannutri is essentially uninhabited and offers the kind of solitude that is genuinely rare in the August Mediterranean; Ponza is volcanic, larger, with a small town that retains real fishing-village character; Palmarola, the small island west of Ponza, is uninhabited and offers what may be the most theatrical anchorage on the Italian coast.

Third, the on-shore infrastructure at the bookends — Porto Ercole at the start, Ponza at the end — is at the level our clients require but has not yet been overrun. Il Pellicano on the Argentario remains one of the great Italian hotels, and the few hotels on Ponza are individual rather than corporate. The route, in short, is the route the more experienced Italian summer travellers have been quietly using.

The Argentario as a Starting Point

We typically begin with two nights on land at Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole before boarding. The hotel was founded in 1965 by an English aristocrat and an American socialite as a private retreat, and in the sixty years since has become the original southern-Tuscan luxury hotel. The setting — on a low cliff above its own swimming cove, with cypresses and pines around the rooms — has weathered the decades unusually well. The kitchen is one-starred and the wine list is among the deepest on the Italian coast.

From Porto Ercole the boat boards in the evening of the second day. We typically choose a sailing yacht for this stretch rather than a motor — the wind in the central Tyrrhenian in August is generally light and reliable, the distances are short, and the right vessel is a fifty-foot-plus performance sloop with a competent racing crew. For clients who prefer motor, the right boat is a thirty-five to forty-metre planing hull that can run the longer passages in the morning.

The Anchorages, in Order

Day three, the short passage to Giglio, with anchor at the Caldane on the western shore for the afternoon swim and the night spent in the harbour at Giglio Porto. Dinner ashore at Da Ruggero, the small fish restaurant at the harbour.

Day four, on to Giannutri, the smaller and uninhabited island to the south of Giglio, with anchorage at Cala Maestra for a long swim. Giannutri has no hotels, no restaurants, no commercial facilities of any kind; the swim and the lunch on board are conducted in genuine quiet.

Day five, the long passage south to the Pontine Islands, arriving at Ponza in the late afternoon. Dinner ashore at the Acqua Pazza, the one-Michelin-starred restaurant in the small town.

Day six, the day excursion west to Palmarola — the small uninhabited island that is, in our considered view, the most beautiful anchorage on the Italian coast. The bay at Cala del Porto on Palmarola is sheer-sided, the water is impossibly clear, and the lunch on board at anchor is the lunch one remembers.

Day seven, a final swim at the Faraglioni di Lucia Rosa on Ponza's western shore, and the return passage to the home port.

The Quieter Argument

We propose this route to a particular kind of client — the one who has been to Capri three times, the one for whom the Costa Smeralda has begun to feel slightly performed, the one who would like an Italian charter week that does not involve queuing for a tender at the Yacht Club at six on a Friday evening. For that client, the central Tyrrhenian remains, in 2026, what the Amalfi was in 1985: real, beautiful, and not yet over-discovered.

We say this with a small reservation. The route is becoming better known each year. The number of charter boats running this corridor has, on our rough count, doubled in the last five summers. There remains a window in which Palmarola and Giannutri can be visited in the conditions we have described; there will not always be such a window.

For now, however, the route is the most considered alternative we know to the more crowded Italian summer charter routes, and we are happy to recommend it to the clients ready for it.

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