Sorrento works as two places at once: a town worth a slow walk, and a base for the bay. This page starts in the old centre and its museums, goes down to the cape and the farms around it, then lists the boat and road trips that leave from here, and ends with the best week of the year to come.
Sorrento sits on a high cliff over the sea, in the middle of its peninsula, looking across the Gulf of Naples to Vesuvius, with Ischia and Procida on the horizon. Down at sea level, below the cliff, there are two beaches, Marina Piccola and Marina Grande, beside the harbours. From the panoramic garden of the Villa Comunale, a lift drops straight down to Marina Piccola.
The Circumvesuviana train links Naples to the town, and a few steps from the station Corso Italia, the main street, leads into the centre.
Corso Italia ends at Piazza Tasso, which Italia.it calls the town's living room, where a statue honours the poet Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), born in a house among the old streets. The lane of Santa Maria della Pietà keeps some of the oldest buildings: Palazzo Veniero from the 13th century, Palazzo Correale from the 14th century and the Loggia di vico Galantariaro from the 15th century.
On Via San Cesareo, the Sedil Dominova, where the local nobility used to meet, is the last of the old sedili still standing in Campania, under a dome of yellow and green tiles. For churches, look for the Cathedral of Saints Philip and James, the majolica floor of Santa Maria delle Grazie and the cloister of San Francesco. Then follow Viale Enrico Caruso to the edge of the Vallone dei Mulini, the last trace of the valleys that once ringed the town, where the mills used to turn.
The Correale di Terranova museum fills 24 rooms of an 18th-century villa among citrus trees with more than 10,000 pieces. The Georges Vallet archaeological museum, in the 19th-century Villa Fondi de Sangro, shows finds from the peninsula from prehistory to the Romans, and the museum-workshop in Palazzo Pomarici Santomasi is devoted to Sorrento's wooden marquetry.
West of the town, on the tip of Capo di Sorrento, lie the ruins of the villa of Pollio Felice and a natural sea pool known as the Bagni della Regina Giovanna. A guided trek to the Regina Giovanna baths and the coast walks there, and a guided trek across the peninsula with views of Li Galli goes further along the headlands.
The hills behind the town are where many visitors cook and taste: a farm tour with pizza and mozzarella making, a cooking class with a local chef in a citrus grove, a farm experience with pizza, cheese and a lemon orchard or a guided farm tour with local food tastings.
By sea, the obvious target is Capri: a full-day boat tour of Capri and the Faraglioni or a boat tour to Capri's Blue Grotto. By road, a guided Amalfi Coast tour with lunch heads east, a guided tour of Pompeii heads north, and a private day with Sorrento, Pompeii and Vesuvius puts the three together. Travellers based in Naples can also come for the day on a private trip from Naples with a limoncello stop.
The coastal climate allows a visit in any season, but Easter week is special: the orange trees are in blossom, and on the evenings of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday hooded processions cross the town by torchlight, wrapped in incense.
Every trip that starts or stops here is also listed on the destination page.
The simplest way is the Circumvesuviana train, which stops close to the main street.
Yes, at sea level below the town: Marina Piccola and Marina Grande.
Yes, from the Villa Comunale gardens down to Marina Piccola.
A poet born in Sorrento in 1544; the main square carries his name and his statue.
Night processions of hooded men on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, with torches and incense.
