Rugged inaccessible cliffs alternated with pleasant beaches. The town’s coastal area is divided in two villages: Marina Piccola, with the harbour for ferries and hydrofoils, and Marina Grande, with its lidos and beaches. The enchanting landscape with its high cliffs, the superb views over the Gulf of Naples to Vesuvius, make Sorrento a traditional international holiday resort.
Probably founded by the Greeks and later conquered by the Samnites it eventually came under the Roman sphere influence. With the fall of the Roman empire and the barbarian invasions, Sorrento suffered the same devastating fate as many other Roman towns in Campania.
The town reached the height of its glory in the Middle Ages as a free maritime duchy, and even contested the supremacy of Amalfi and Naples in the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea.
Some of the most attractive places to visit include: Piazza Tasso, formerly called Largo di Castello; the Villa Comunale, town park on the cliff top with a superb view over the Gulf of Naples; Marina Grande, etc.
From Sorrento You can easily reach Punta Campanella, with its beautiful views and seascape from the very tip of the Gulf of Naples and also its relics of historical interest, as well as the towns of Massalubrense and Nerano.
Sorrento is one of the most romantic and famous tourist attractions in Italy. The main fascination of this town is the serene brilliance of its landscape, the flowering of its gardens, the mildness of its air. Many prefer the mild restful beauty of Sorrento, especially for a holiday, to the wild and rugged beauty of Capri, and the orgy of colour and granite of the coast of Amalfi. The town of Sorrento lies on a stratum of rock of volcanic origin about 50 meters above sea level, and has as its background the green hills of Sant'Agata, Tore, S. Angelo and Colli di Fontanelle, which separate the peninsula into the bays of Naples and Salerno.
From Vico Equense to Massalubrense visitor passes behind a curtain of orange trees, with their blossom in May, and silver olive trees.
Among the visitors who came here to enjoy its serenity for their works are: Goethe, Byron, F. Cooper, Walter Scott, Vittorio Alfieri, Giacomo Leopardi, Alexander Dumas, Ernest Renan, Henrik Ibsen, who wrote Ghosts in 1881. Also here were Giuseppe Verdi, and Longfellow in 1862, Samuel Smiles in 1888, Oscar Wilde, Nietzsche wrote Human, too Human at Sorrento in 1876, and it was here that he had his famous dispute with Wagner. Grieg also wrote several of his "poems" here at Sorrento.
The description of this romantic land, with its orange and lemon groves, vineyards, walnut and almond trees, could be attractive, but in real life is definitely better. The song "Come back to Sorrento" is still on for you.
A visitor, who spends his vacation in Sorrento, has the chance to visit also the nearby ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum and the seaside resorts in the Naples area such as Amalfi, Positano, Capri, Naples itself, Salerno and other beautiful places in the region.
SORRENTO: the town, its history, what to see
Sorrento, the town
The enchanting landscape with its high cliffs, the superb views over the Gulf of Naples to Vesuvius, make Sorrento a traditional international holiday resort. It is an ideal place to come on holiday, a great tourist attraction also for the vicinity of popular places easy to reach such as the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, Naples, Capri, Positano, Amalfi and Ischia. Sorrento coast is composed of rugged inaccessible cliffs alternated with pleasant beaches. The town's coastal area is divided in two villages: Marina Piccola , with the harbour for ferries and hydrofoils, and Marina Grande , with its lidos and beaches.
A FEW HISTORICAL INSIGHTS ABOUT SORRENTO :
Sorrento was probably founded by the Etruscans (VII century b.c.), a population coming from Tuscany, and later conquered by the Samnites (V century b.c.), native of Campania region. It eventually came under the Roman sphere influence, but with the fall of the Roman empire and the barbarian invasions, Sorrento suffered the same devastating fate as many other Roman towns in Campania. The town reached the height of its glory in the Middle Ages as a free maritime duchy, and even contested the supremacy of Amalfi and Naples in the Upper Tyrrhenian Sea. After the long period of the Middle Age, Sorrento suffered the Spanish domination : the baroque style of so many churches is a visible heritage of that period. But the XVIII century and a part of the XIX century were an economical, social end cultural rebirth of Sorrento when the tourist vocation of this area was born and it was established with its inclusion in the so-called "Grand Tour", a journey through the most important Italian sights that every noble European son of those times had to make to complete his cultural, historical and literary formation. Thus, as above-mentioned, guests such as Byron, Keats, Scott, Dickens, Goethe, Wagner, Ibsen and Nitzsche came to stay in Sorrento in search of sun and inspiration.
WHAT TO SEE IN SORRENTO :
Some places in Sorrento of tourist attraction include:
Piazza Tasso, formerly called Largo di Castello;
the Villa Comunale;
the public garden on the cliff top with a superb view over the Gulf of Naples;
Marina Grande, a charming bay with a characteristic fishing village;
the Romanesque style Cathedral dating from the 15th century;
Regina Giovanna, the archaeological remains of a seaside villa.
Another pearl of the town is the "Correale Museum", which is due to the munificence of the Correale Counts, who gave this beautiful villa and the park surrounding it as well as the precious collections. The museum has an archeological section on the ground floor, where there Greek, Roman and Byzantine marbles, and in particular the important Base of Augustus (sacrificial altar of a statue of the Augustian age) are kept. In the two upper floors are collections of furniture, paintings, ceramics, clocks, statuettes for Neapolitan cribs and 17th and 18th century Neapolitan porcelain. Various rooms are devoted to the so-called "the School of Posillipo", with paintings by Pitloo, Vianelli, Duclère, Gigante and some of the most representative painters of the 19th century Naples.
The visit to this museum gives a magnificent idea of the development of Neapolitan decorative arts. Outside the villa, a stone commemorates the illustrious foreigners who have celebrated the beauty of Sorrento.
This town, besides its history, antiquity and healthy climate, is also important for its trade of citrus fruits, wines, oils, walnuts and cheeses (in particular "mozzarella"), as well as for its laceworks, silks and inlaid wood-works, which may be purchased in several shops in Sorrento.
In addition, from Sorrento You can easily reach Punta Campanella , with its beautiful views and seascape from the very tip of the Gulf of Naples and also its relics of historical interest, as well as the towns of Massalubrense and Nerano.
Image of Sorrento Peninsula with its typical lemons of Sorrento.
The lemon of Sorrento is the “Oval of Sorrento” cultivar, known affectionately as “Femminello”. This fruit medium to large-sized fruit weighing at least 85 g, is elliptical in shape, has a strong scent and is very juicy. The yellow part of the peel is rich in essential oils and the juice from the fruit has an instantly recognisable combination of citrus acid and sugar. In 2000, the “Femminello” received Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) recognition under European Union regulations. This protects the cultivar and defines the geographical area where the lemon can be grown as the Sorrento peninsula and the Isle of Capri. The PGI stamp also requires that cultivation is carried out in a specific (and organic) way, under the pagliarelle, which are like “mats” that protect against the saltiness in the air, drops in temperature and delay ripening (a defining characteristic of this lemon). The cultivar is remontant: in October, the first fruit (“primofiore”) has the juiciest lemons; in March, the light yellow “bianchetti” ripen; and in June, the “verdelli” or green lemons are ready.
Due to their sun-filled beauty, citrus fruit where first used as decorative plants and were even celebrated in rawdija (a genre of Arabian poetry). It was also the Arabs who discovered the healing properties of the essential oils and juices extracted from the bark, flowers and fruit of the laymun (lemon), narang (sour orange), ‘utrug (citron) and so on. The distillation of al-kuhul (alcohol) by means of the al-inbiq (alembic) was also a part of Arabian pharmacopoeia. Adding aromatic herbs to alcohol produced al-iksir (elixirs), which, for centuries, were vital for doctors, chemists and then, in monasteries. Some time in the 15th or 16th centuries, monks started to combine flavoured alcohol with sweet syrups, thus giving birth to the era of liqueurs and rosolios (sweet liqueurs). It will always be a mistery wheter it was monks or a clever housewife who first “macerated” lemon peel in alcohol and sugar syrup, but the result, “limoncello” or “limonillo” in the dialect of Sorrento, is now a typical local product.
Sorrento, the fishermen's village of Marina Grande.
It is so pleasant for a tourist to visit this spot of Sorrento which is very typical: in its restaurants You can enjoy very good fish at reasonable prices. The patron saint of this fishermen's village is Santa Anna (july 26) and every year on that date they arrange a great celebration and nice fireworks and the population of Sorrento takes part of it. It is one of the most suggestive moments of the year where ancient traditions still live on this noble coast.
Typical view of the Sorrento Coast.
Sorrento is situated on a platform of tufa stone of volcanic origin. 31000 years ago a series of eruptions took place in the Northen-West side of Naples. During those eruptions a big quantity of ash arrived as far as the Sorrento hills. Then it hardened and it turned into this rock. The proof of that is that on the other side of the Sorrento Peninsula, that is the Amalfi Coast, there is no trace of tufa rock. On the top to the right there a big building which is the hotel Vittoria (5 stars) where the famous tenor Enrico Caruso was special guest.
This strip of land is typical for the orange and lemon groves: from the lemon people of Sorrento area make the famous "limoncello" and the "lemon cream", the alcoholic drinks of the territory. Another interesting production here is that one of the walnuts and the olive oil. The olive oil is still produced here by following the ancient technique of the "cold pressing". In october and november it is possible to see plenty of nets placed at the foot of the olive-trees: they collect the olives that fall on the ground.
Tasso Square
Tasso Square, bisected by Sorrento's main street, Corso Italia, is the center of the town. The piazza is about a 300 m walk north-west of the train station, along Corso Italia.
