The winding northern coastal road leading to Port Santo Stefano on the Argentario peninsula was where many rich Roman nobles built magnificent villas and baths, the most famous of which were the ruins of Villa Domiziana on strada Liberata, and Villa Dentiliana in nearby Pozzarello. Domiziana was the seat of the powerful Enobarbi family, who were bankers, or “Argentarii” which gives the peninsula it’s name!

After Roman rule the area faded into obscurity and was fought over in the middle ages by at various times the French, the Austrians, the Spanish, the Kingdom of Naples, Siena, and the Bourbons, until eventually ending up with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and joining the Kingdom of Italy in 1860. During the second world war it was an important logistical base for the German armed forces, and was bombed heavily by the Allies throughout the war with many civilian casualties.