Marina Grande-Sorrento's Best Kept Secret

Sorrento's Marina Grande is a special place, just off the tourists' radar.  Yet this charming community peeks through the curtains of mass tourism every Spring, puts on a sweet smile, and then returns to its regular business once the late-autumn cold sets in again.  I was fortunate enough to stay in Marina Grande for 8 days in March, make some friends, and start to feel like a local.

Locals call Marina Grande an "Antico Borgo Marinaro," or Ancient Maritime Village.  It has been said by a travel guru that I admire, Mr. Rick Steves (yup, I AM a total Rick-nic), that "even the cats look different in Marina Grande."  I don't know about that, but there sure are a lot of cute cats in Marina Grande, and unless you have a fish in your hand, you are dead to them.  I did have one friendly black cat that walked into the house a few times, but he quickly discovered the cooking at the restaurant next door was MUCH better food than what I had to offer.  But this post is not about the cats.

The reason people think the cats, and the people of Marina Grande, look different is that Marina Grande is technically a separate village from Sorrento.  As you can see from this old painting pictured above of Sorrento, Marina Grande is on the beach to the right of the city. Sorrento sits high above Marina Grande on a cliff and is surrounded by medieval city walls.  This left poor Marina Grande residents outside the walls of protection from an attack by invading armies or Turkish pirates called Saracens that used to rape, pillage, and plunder along this coast.

Only small sections of Sorrento's original wall remain to be seen today, but this ancient Greek gate that marks the entry into Marina Grande has been here since the fourth century BCE.  This gate is HUGE and served as the main city entrance during the ancient Greek era.  Today it is a reminder that it was a matter of life and death depending on what side of the gate you were on.  TIP:  IF YOU WALK DOWN TO MARINA GRANDE FROM SORRENTO, YOU CAN CATCH THE BUS BACK UP.  Buses to Piazza Tasso leave every hour from the little bus shelter by the beach.  The last bus up to Sorrento is about 8:00 pm.

The people of Marina Grande seem very traditional.  Not only in the type of work they do, like all the fishermen that unload their nets here every morning, but also in the cultural traditions that have endured for centuries.  Such as every afternoon in the little square in front of the church of Sant'Anna, the older folk would gather on the benches.  Men sit on one side of the small square or Piazzetta and women on the other, watching the village kids playing a game of football in between them.  Many of the older women dress in black as a show of mourning for the loss of a loved one.  There are many madonelle" or street-side altars of the Virgin Mary that you pass by or that are visible on buildings here in Marina Grande.  These shrines connect the community's history to its daily life.

Madonelle of Marina Grande

Of course, other strong traditions in Marina Grande involve the sea.  This is still an active dock where fishing boats come to unload their catch.  Each morning the boats pull up, and the freshly caught fish are unloaded for the local restaurants to pick up.  One morning we saw some sardines being unloaded and carried into the local restaurant that our friend Simone recommended to us.  We were eating those sardines at Taverna Azzurra that very night; prepared in the local Sorrentine method. I highly recommend this family-run restaurant serving authentic Sorrentine seafood dishes since 1930. Of course, the meal was completed with the traditional complimentary glass of homemade limoncello (my favourite tradition of all).

Another local tradition related to fishermen and the sea is, of course, the boat.  In Sorrento, there is a type of traditional boat called the "gozzi Sorrentini."  These are handmade lightweight wooden boats with triangular sails that were specially made for fishing.  While gozzo is a generic term for a wooden ship found all over southern Italy, here in Sorrento, they are still crafted by hand.  This shop was in our small piazzelle, and the owner was in his shop day and night, working hard on his beautiful boats.

Fresh Bread Delivery

The heart of modern Marina Grande is this unassuming little shop on Via Mariana Grande, Deco Market, where locals go shopping for their groceries.  I discovered 'The Deco' on my first night in Marina Grande when I was hunting for dinner supplies.  This place has everything you need; a small selection of local produce, dried goods, local wine and beer selection. In the back of the store, there is a meat and cheese counter that has a great local selection.  Twice a day, freshly baked bread is delivered to the store for their customers, and it is delicious!  The store is run by the Russo family, and keeping with the family traditions, their son and daughter help out in the evenings.  During tourist season, The Deco makes fresh sandwiches every morning; they are called panini in Italian.  You can take them away with you for lunch during a sightseeing trip or sit on the beach and have a lovely picnic.

Of course, the real magic of Marina Grande happens in the evening.  My evening ritual was to grab a glass of wine or limoncello from my Airbnb cottage, wander across the street, sit on the beach, and watch the lights come on in the Bay of Naples as the sun sank into the waves. With Sorrento as my home base for exploring Naples and the Amalfi Coast, my days were jam-packed with buses, ferries, and long days of walking for hours.  I could have stayed up in busy Sorrento with the bustle of life, but it was SO lovely to return to my Marinara Sea Cottage on Via Marina Grande and just relax and listen to the waves.

  

What was your favourite part of visiting Marina Grande?  Let me know in the comments below!

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