An area of confinement since ancient times, Ventotene has always been a place where cultures meet, becoming a political laboratory for reflection on European values of democracy and freedom. The outcome of this encounter was the Ventotene Manifesto, which, by envisaging a federal government, laid the foundations for the modern idea of a united Europe. The Ventotene Manifesto, officially entitled “For a free and United Europe”, was signed in 1941 by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi who both were kept in the prison camp in Ventotene that was built in 1939 to exile opponents of the fascist regime. The Ventotene Manifesto is a key document, encompassing values such as democracy, solidarity and freedom into a future foundation of a common and strong Europe. ​Nowadays, the city of Ventotene continues to develop initiatives that confirm this role so as to become a place of education on Europe and of reflection on how to develop the federalist perspective suggested in the Manifesto itself.