Sweetly nestled on the tufo bedrock, the Sorrento coast is reflected in the Gulf of Naples, casting a spell on tourists and visitors who are attracted by the landscapes and sometimes emotionally breathtaking views. The ‘Land of the Sirens’ is made up of a vast expanse of land that extends from Vico Equense to Massa Lubrense and which, thanks to its geographical make up, suspended between it’s green hills and shimmering blue sea, has always been one of the great attractions of Southern Italy. With it’s nearly 12 thousand places to find a bed distributed in over 150 receptive establishments, besides hotels there are many other lodging options – from camping to bed and breakfasts, from flats for hire to hostels, and touristic villages and thirty or so Agritourism – this area is in fact among the most preferred destinations out of the entire region of Campania. Sorrento makes the perfect home base for Italian and foreign visitors planning excursions to Capri, Ischia, Pompei, Positano, Amalfi, Herculaneum, Paestum and to Vesuvius, all of which are situated conveniently no more than 50 km away. Sorrento was first a Phoenician colony , after that it became a port frequented by the Greeks for commercial activity with Naples and with others southern cities. It was named by  Greeks “Syrenusion” or “Syreon” which means ‘Siren’s land’, the Sirens were the mythological creatures half woman and half fish, that Homer spoke of in his famous work, “ The Odyssey”. These creatures with their song could fascinate sailors and lure them to their deaths.
After the rule of the Oscans and Samnites it was submitted to the Romans. The Romans appreciated so much the beauties of this place that during the imperial period it was elected a holiday destination of patricians, as the numerous villas witnessed. Home to Torquato Tasso, Sorrento has always exercised a particular fascination that has attracted poets and literary men like Goethe,  Lamartine , Stendhal, De Bouchard, Byron to D’Annunzio, Ibsen, Douglas, musicians like Rossini, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Wagner, painters like Pinelli,  Fernet, Lindstrom, photographers like De Luca and the brothers Alinari, and directors like De Sica, Gallone and Mastronardo. Among the famous visitors of  Sorrento one can list also Enrico Caruso, Giacomo Casanova, Scipione Breislak, Marion Crawford, Charles Dickens, Helman Melvill, Friedtich Nietzche and Axel Munthe. This coast town was included in the eighteenth- century among the main destinations of the ‘Great Tour’, a journey among the most significant Italian cities, that was made by the foreign intellectuals who wanted to study in depth the Italian history, art and culture.
THINGS NOT TO MISS
Basilica of Saint Antonino. Dedicated to the Patron Saint and built with a typical basilica structure, with a nave and two aisles, around the year 1000, it was then restored and rebuilt between the 18th and the 19th centuries. The structure preserves; paintings from the 1600′s, fragments of an ancient majolica tiled floor and a remarkable example of a neapolitan nativity scene made in the 1700′s, which was a tribute to the students of the Sammartino School with statues that were dressed up with clothes fashioned with precious fabrics and enriched with precious laces. In a crypt below is located  Saint Antonino’ s grave. He was born in Campagna, a town near Salerno, came to Sorrento after a period in which he lived between Castellammare di Stabia and Monte Faito, and died here on 15 February, 471. Among the miracles which were attributed to him, it’s important to remember, when he saved a child who was swallowed by a whale. This fact explains the presence of two cetacean bones in the hall of the basilica. There was a deep bond between the Saint and the sea and its inhabitants, as the collection of ex votos given to the church by the sailors who escaped shipwrecks shows.
Duomo (Cathedral of Sorrento). The Cathedral of Sorrento doesn’t lack in examples of local art, famous in all of Italy, inlaid woodwork. This town’s overlooks the street Corso Italia and its adorned with furnishings realized using ancient techniques of inlaid work. It was built at the beginning of the fifteenth century with a romantic style and later it was restored several times until the restoration of 1924 when the front was entirely rebuilt. The church,  in addition to the baptistery where Torquato Tasso was baptized (maybe the most famous citizen of the town),  contains a great number of paintings of the Neapolitan School of the eighteenth century and is characterized also it’s grand bell tower.
Sedil Dominova. A refined monument, built around 1450 and perfectly preserved, it is the ideal place where the representatives of the local nobles met to discuss matters related to the political and administrative life of the city. The last remaining witness in all of Campania of the ancient aristocratic meeting point, is that of the Dominova with an open loggia, surmounted by arches with a square base that is closed on the two sides by two balustrades and a majolica tiled dome of the seventeenth century. Very interesting are the frescos of the seventeenth century which represent the architectural perspectives. The inner small lounge preserved the marble inscriptions that now are at the museum Correale di Terranova in Sorrento. In the area opposite Sedile Dominova once stayed a small fountain. From this fountain, the square was given it’s name, “ Schizzariello,” which means a ‘little squirt (of water)’.
Convento di San Francesco (Saint Francis’ Convent). Saint Francis’s convent is made up of three structures: the church, the convent, and the very famous cloister. The church was built in the 16th century in a Baroque style, but with a front in white marble that was built in 1926. The main wood door preserves important works representing Saint Francis with the crucifix. Another statue of the saint, in bronze, in a modern style, realized in 1922 by the sculptor Alfiero Nena, is visible in the square opposite the church. Next to the church there’s the splendid cloister of the fourteenth century that was founded in the 7th century and which today is still inhabited by Franciscan friars. The building has a rich variety of  architectural styles melted together to form one work, an ideal setting for art exhibitions, festivals, concerts and events.
Marina Grande. You can reach this place through a road  with large steps which goes downhill. This road starts from the end of the street “Sopra le Mura”. After a few steps you reach the gate of Marina Grande which preserves, thanks to successive restorations, the typical Greek structure which is dated around the 4th century B.C. From this gate entered the Turkish pirates who sacked Sorrento in 1558. Going beyond this gate one finds themselves behind a typical fishing village, represented by a fusion between the Moorish architecture and the local styles. From this combination arise architectural forms, bizarre and picturesque like the houses, built on the tufo Cliffside which are still inhabited. Here also one finds St. Anne’s church, the patron saint of this village, which was built at the end of the seventeenth century and successively added on to. On the beach in a shipyard under the open sky, the famous “Sorrento fishing boats” were built, a typical wooden boat with a sail, these boats were long from 6 to 12 meters, easy to handle, reliable, and unsinkable. The master skills of Sorrento artisans was so great that the fishing boats were used by fishermen in the Gulf of Naples and it’s islands. Descendents of these boats are the fishing motor boat that is built still today in Sorrento and its surrounding area.
Correale Museum. This museum was started by private means by the Alfredo and Pompeo Correale brothers, and the Counts of Terranova, the last descendants of an old and aristocratic family of Sorrento. In their will they provided the palace and their art collections, preserved in the Villa Correale, to make a museum entitled by their name. Walking along  the rooms of this splendid residence you can admire precious furniture, refined European and eastern porcelains, and rare neapolitan and foreign paintings. The building is distributed on three floors, with a total of twenty four rooms and the attic which is used as an exposition space. The art collections of the Correale Museum present a wide range of Neapolitan and foreign paintings as well as decorative art from 16th to 19th centuries. It also preserves an interesting collection of European clocks, and one of the most prestigious collections of Chinese, European and Neapolitan porcelains of the 18th century. For further information, call tel.0818781846.
Museobottega della Tarsialignea (The museum/workshop of inlaid wood). Located in the old town of Sorrento, in an eighteenth century palace, the museum presents, in a room with frescoed vaults and with hand painted wallpaper on it’s ceilings, a selected and rich collection of furniture and objects made by the inlayer masters of Sorrento since the 19th century. The display highlights technical and decorative aspects of each artisan school and workshop. The adjacent display is of paintings of Italian and foreign artists, of vintage photos and prints, and allows one to reconstruct the 19th century image of the Sorrento coast, as well as the historical and environmental context in which the local production of how inlaid woodwork developed. The evolution of the manufacturing techniques, the documentation of the materials used, the study of decorative themes, and the planning details which value the design of the inlaid products offer the occasion for so many other stops. For further information, call tel.0818771942.
Capo di Sorrento (Cape of Sorrento). This location, found halfway between Sorrento and Massa Lubrense, reachable also by bus, contains the Regina Giovanna Beaches and the archaeological site of the Villa di Pollio Felice. To reach this area you have to go along a narrow street, shaded by olive and orange trees, with the walls covered by ivy, which goes down along the ramp arriving at the sea. The cliff is dedicated to the queen Giovanna Durazzo d’Angiò, who, according to legend, came to see herself into this reflective sheen of the sea. All the space behind the top of the mountain is occupied by remains of a great Roman villa, that belonged maybe to the patrician Pollio Felice, built at the time of the emperor Domiziano (81-96 A.D.), and was also sung about by the Latin poet Stazio in his poem “Silvae”. Going on, one can reach the “Solara”, an expanse of cliffs corroded by the sun, a summer destination of hundreds of sunbathers.
Marina di Puolo. This is a suggestive seaside village, which has today about 150 inhabitants, and a territory divided into Sorrento and Massa Lubrense. The story of this place is one of old fishermen coming to look deep into the shining sea, a part of the nature reserve Punta Campanella, a protected area notable for its unique environment and biodiversity. The village, located behind the large beach, has an old sighting tower which rises above to protect itself from pirates.  The name “Puolo” derives from a distortion of the Latin ‘Pollius’, name of the Roman patrician Pollius Felix, owner of a majestic villa, which stood very close. The Puolo area is involved today with a recovery and protection project concerning the tourism. This project has been started and continued by an association of members from among the inhabitants of the village.

DISTANCE FROM SORRENTO TO:
Rome: 257 Km.
Naples: 48 Km.
INFORMATION AND USEFUL NUMBERS
Police: 0818074433
Taxi: 0818782204
Post Offices: Corso Italia 212 and Via Capo 108
Tourist office: Via L. De Maio 35, Tel.  08187074033