Sorrento - Things to see

Sorrento is the most important city on the Sorrento Peninsula which puts out into the sea between the Bay of Naples and the Gulf of Sorrento.
It is sing by poets and writers for its spectacular (beauty) charm.
Sorrento, not to be rhetorical is indeed the land of colours which are bright or delicate depending on the change of the season: the blu of the sea, the light blu like the colour of the traditional crafts that the fisherman face the sea in, green like the pine and olive treets that frame the magnificent view of the gulf, like the orange and lemon treets that give the air its sweet smell, like the vegetation and the gardens that are the pride of the people of Sorrento.
Many civilitations have passed through here: the Etruscans, the Greeks, who give the city its urban layout that is still clearly visibible today in the historical centre, the Oscans, the Romans. Later the subgugation to Byzantium, the seek by the Longobards, the conquest by the Normans, the influence of the Aragonese.
After a long period of stagnation, the beginning of the 1700 saw a period of cultural and economic rebirth for the whole Sorrentine peninsula, which reached its climax during the 1800. In this period Sorrento become a touristic destination and it was included in the so-called “Grand Tour”, a journey through Italy that every noble European son had to make to complete his cultural formation. For that reason guests such as Byron, Keats, Scott, Dickens, Goethe, Wagner and Nitzsche come to stay in Sorrento in search of sun and inspiration. In the same time also the tourist industry was born that is now the most important sector of the Sorrentine economy.
Today Sorrento is a charming city with over one hundred comfortable hotels.
It is rich of artistic sights as St. Francis’s Church, Villa Comunale, Correale Museum and the Cathedral.
The church of St. Francis with its lovely bell tower and the monastery which contains interesting cloisters from the 14 the century whose capitals support arches pointed in the Morish style.
The cathedral is renovated in the 15th century with its campanile.
The museum Correale di terranova is housed in an 18th century palace. On the grand floor there is a very interesting archaelogical collection. Particulary impressive are the museum’s collections of 17th and 18th century, furniture mostly Neapolita and china from Dresden, Vienna and Naples.
Beyond the Correale Museum you reach a terrace called “Belvedere” where you can admire the view of the sea and beatiful sunsets.
As legends tell Ulisses resisted here the call of the sirens. The city is also the birthplace of Tasso (1544), the author of Jerusalem Delivered. The villa where he was born is now part of the well known Hotel Tramontano.

Food and Drink
In the meny restaurants of the city you can taste several spacialities of the traditional local way of cooking as the “pizza”, “gnocchi alla sorrentina”