Portonovo is a little piece of paradise far from town and noises. Right in the middle of nature and culture, where dwell the seagulls. Among the numerous bays all different, there is the beautiful Romanesque church of Santa Maria built behind the beach between 1034 and 1048 by the Benedictines Monks. A little further on there is the Watchtower (1716), requested by Pope Clement XI for the sighting of enemy ships and later became private property. In the bay wider, however, overlooks the Napoleonic Fort, built in 1810 during the reign of Napoleon in Italy, with the intent to prevent the landing of British ships.