Rocco Aldobrandesca @ Starforts.com

About two thirds of the way up the front of the Italian boot is Monte Argentario, a weird little nub of land sticking out from Italy, connected by a peninsula. The promintory belonged to the Domitii Aenobarbi family, which had lent money to the Roman Republic during the Punic Wars (264-146BC) to fight the wicked Carthaginians, and received Monte Argentario in return...despite the annoying Etruscans already living there. Monte Argentario later became an Imperial possession, and was ceded to the church in the 4th century by Constantine the Great (272-337).

The first fortification built at Porto Ercole, on the south side of the promintory, came about in the 12th century at the behest of the Abbey of Tre Fontaine in Rome. This medieval fort was upgraded into its current starrish state by the Spaniards in the 16th century, who were hanging out on Monte Argentario while doing their part to help the city states of Italy bash on each other for several centuries.

At the end of the 19th century Rocco Aldobrandesca was turned into a prison, and through the First World War (1914-1918) prisoners of war were held there. Monte Argentario was heavily bombed during the Second World War (1939-1945), and while the promintory's northern port, Santo Stefano, was destroyed, Porto Ercole and its two little star forts were relatively undamaged.

Today, most of Rocco Aldobrandesca's interior is privately owned residences, and a museum.