It was connected to Rome in the north and Ardea to the south by the Via Laurentina. Lavinium was assimilated by Republican Rome. It was already fortified in the 7th century BC and flourishing in the 6th. Recent archaeological excavations performed to the south date Lavinium to well before the legendary foundation of Rome. Pratica di Mare is observably smaller than ancient Lavinium, whose remains crop out in the surrounding fields. Ancient Roman seaside villas are no longer on the beach. The sea may well have formerly extended up to the base of the hill, as sites further north, such as Ostia, appear to have retreated one or two miles inland. The Fosso di Pratica was re-routed around the end of a runway however, today's small brook is in no way compatible with the concept of a port. Today the base is both a secure airport for the protection of distinguished visitors to the Rome region and a home for air shows of advanced aircraft. It has the historical distinction of being the airfield from which Otto Skorzeny flew Mussolini to safety in Germany after his rescue from imprisonment in a mountain villa. Pratica di Mare is about 6 km (3.7 mi) from the Tyrrhenian Sea near the top of a slope descending to an alluvial shelf on which the Pratica di Mare Air Force Base has been placed. All that remains of the river that once partly surrounded the village is a small stream, the Fosso di Pratica. The castle and the village were periodically renovated. One Roman gate allows entry into the narrow streets of the village past the Castello Borghese, originally a fortification, purchased along with the village in 1617 by Marcantonio Borghese. A brief strip of field separates the large and flourishing city from the village. The latter is a city constructed in 1939 and settled according to a plan of Benito Mussolini, whose engineers completed the millennia-long task of draining and filling the marsh, now the Pontine fields. Today's settlement remains a walled village of medieval design, Pratica di Mare, in the comune of Pomezia. The location of Lavinium has never been lost to historians nor does there appear to have been any significant break in its habitation. The basis for the port, the only one between Ostia and Antium, was evidently the mouth of the Numicus river. Lavinium was on a hill at the southernmost edge of the Silva Laurentina, a dense laurel forest, and the northernmost edge of the Pontine Marshes, a vast malarial tract of wetlands. The coastline then, as now, was a long strip of beach. Lavinium was a port city of Latium, 6 km (3.7 mi) to the south of Rome, midway between the Tiber river at Ostia and Antium.

The comune of Pomezia and the museum are directly behind the photographer. The archaeological excavations are in a field off to the left of the photograph.

On the left is the Castello Borghese, possibly the site of the Roman arx or citadel. The structures in the photograph vary in date. Gate into the interior of the settlement of the frazione of Pratica di Mare, a medieval walled village at the site of the center of ancient Lavinium.

Bellovin itrace