Sorrento's Siren Song

Sorrento is a lemon-kissed jewel on the rugged coastline between Napoli and Salerno; less chaotic then it’s neighbour of Naples to the North and more exciting than the sleepy towns of the Amalfi Coast.  Sorrento was named by the Ancient Greeks for the sirens they believed lived in the waters of the Bay of Salerno.  It must be a Sirens song that lures loads of tourists here each summer.

View From Piazza Della Vittoria

We have spent almost a week between the Amalfi coast and the Bay of Naples, and have not yet explored our home base of Sorrento.  After a lazy morning in, we decided to go up to Sorrento from Marina Grande to visit the public garden that is a lemon and orange grove.  Walking up through the medieval gates of Marina Grande, we pass hotel after hotel that is painting, cleaning and landscaping; making ready for the tourist season that starts in April.  We were lucky to beat the crowds of this lovely town, yet we can only imagine how nice Sorrento would be in the summer with that beautiful breeze constantly blowing off the ocean.  Piazza Della Vittoria is a small public square that sits across from a terrace that overlooks the Bay of Naples.  It's a great spot to rest after coming up from our sea cottage in Marina Grande.

Cloisters of San Francesco

Sorrento's Beach 

Another beautiful spot to stop and take in the view is Villa Communale.  It is just down the street from Piazza Vittoria on Via San Francesco.  Villa Communale is a park that surrounds the monastery of San Francisco.  This 13th-century monastery and its cloisters are a tranquil reprieve during the busy tourist season.  It is beautiful even at night when it is flood-lit and mysterious, with it's Gothic, Norman and Arabic styles.  From Villa Communale you can take stairs that lead to "the beach", which is actually a wooden sundeck (the deck is not yet on for the season) or head to Marina Piccolo. TIP #1: THERE IS A PUBLIC ELEVATOR HERE THAT COSTS €1 TO AVOID THE STAIRS

Antiche Mure-Old Mill

We walked down Via San Cesareo, which we called walking the “lemon gauntlet” for all the yellow souvenirs in the world are here.   This road spits you out at Piazza Tasso, the main square of Sorrento.  If you can cross the busy square here carefully  (I almost became pizza da Strada or road pizza) and walk up a block by the taxi stand to the railings on the side of the road.  If you peer over the bannister you can actually see steps that were carved into the edge of the river gorge by the Greeks in the 5th-century BCE.  The steps lead down to an old abandoned flour mill that was built around 900 and was abandoned in the 1860's when building Piazza Tasso cut it off from the sea.  I would love to turn this place into a super cool restaurant with a cool lit up patio......

Orange Lined Corso Italia

Fresh lemonade

Following along the main drag of Corso Italia, you find all sorts of fashionable clothing stores, grocery stores, the movie theatre and jewellers.  The public lemon garden is on the Corso Italia past the street that heads up to the train station.  Just look for the lemon painted tiles leading into the walled garden.  I Giardini di Cataldo is a family owned citrus grove that is an oasis in downtown Sorrento.  Lemons are big business in the vicinity of Sorrento and Capri. Many different varieties are grown here and therefore are harvested three times a year; the most famous is the "sfusato Sorrentino" that becomes the sweet treats such as limoncello, granita and limonata.  There is a little stand in the garden where you can sample Limoncello, Mandarino (Mandarin Orange liqueur, Liquirizia (a liquorice based liqueur), fennel liqueur, and Liqueur di Noci or walnut liqueur.

Limoncello Factory

This little booze stand was not only a fantastic marketing plan, but it was educational as well.  We decided to exit the lemon garden at the back entrance on Via Correale and head to I Giardini Di Cataldo factory.  The factory is also set in a beautiful garden and you can also have samples of the liqueurs that they produce from ALL LOCAL ingredients.  This family-run business makes THE BEST limoncello I have tasted in my opinion.  I like my limoncello on the sweet side, whereas Luke likes his to taste like lemon furniture polish; more alcohol than lemon.

Limonoro Store

After our purchase of a giant bottle of Limoncello and a bottle of the Liquirizia. We decided to head back to Via San Cesario and hit the lemon souvenir shopping HARD.  We bought lemon soaps in hand-painted dishes, lemon coloured scarves, lemon candies,  tablecloths, and t-shirts.  I just wanted to mention a place called Limonoro.  It is also a limoncello factory with all sorts of free samples; all very delicious.  They have a product that is called Crema di Limone and it is creamy limoncello liqueur.  They also carry it in an orange flavour.  BUY IT!  It is the best version of this creamy liqueur I have tasted in Sorrento (I may have sampled A LOT in the week we were there).  TIP#2: BUY LIQUEURS THAT HAVE A QUALITY OF PRODUCTION SEAL.  This ensures that you are purchasing good liqueurs.

Citra-licious!

We slipped through a little laneway and headed East (our backs towards the water) to Corso Italia again to see the old part of town.  Along this stretch of upscale shops, there is a Carthusia of Capri perfume shop!  YaY!  The shop had JUST opened for the tourist season that day, which was so lucky because I tried to purchase perfume in Capri a few days earlier, but the shop not yet open for the tourist season.  I did end up purchasing a bottle of a unisex fragrance called "Capri: Forget Me Not" that is a mixture of mint, fig, citrus and sunshine in a bottle.  It is a wonderful souvenir that transports me back to Capri in an instant when I sniff it.



 Further along the Corso Italia, you see a great white villa called Villa Fiorentino. This is a villa owned by the city of Sorrento and holds great art exhibits such as the Sophia Loren photography exhibit that was shown here in 2017.  The grounds of the villa is a lovely park with a children's playground.  It's also a nice place to have a little picnic; in fact, there is a great coffee bar called Bar Veneruso next door that has THE most amazing selection of fresh desserts.

One Of Each, Per Favore!

TIP #3: NAPLES AREA SWEETS TO TRY:  Sfogliatella, Baba Au Rhum, Delizia (which is a lemon sponge cake in a bowl covered in lemon chiffon), various Zeppole (a sort of Italian doughnut), or in March look for Zeppole di San Giuseppe Saint Joseph's Day cakes (which have custard and fruit on them).
Sorrento is a charming place to spend the day or very handy place to stay as a jumping off point to see the Amalfi Coast area with lots of train, ferry or even car rental shops.  The food is GREAT in the town and if you are worried about having to speak Italian, there are plenty of American and British ex-pats in this town to help you out.  We even hit St. Patricks Day in a British PUB on Corso Italia.  It seems the only Sirens left in Sorento are the ones selling that delicious, sweet, lemon treat -limoncello!

Someone had too many limoncello samples: