Italy, Sorrento

Sorrento is a small city in Campania, Italy, with some 16,500 inhabitants. It is a popular tourist destination. The town can be reached easily from Naples and Pompeii, as it lies at the south-eastern end of the Circumvesuviana rail line. The town overlooks the bay of Naples, as the key place of the Sorrentine Peninsula, and many viewpoints in the city allow sight of Naples itself (visible across the bay) and Vesuvius.

The "Amalfi drive" (connecting Sorrento and Amalfi) is the narrow road that threads around the high cliffs above the Mediterranean.

Ferry boats and hydrofoils provide services to Naples, Amalfi, Positano, Capri and Ischia. Sorrento's sea cliffs are impressive and its luxury hotels have attracted famous personalities including Enrico Caruso and Luciano Pavarotti.

Sorrento is famous for the production of Limoncello, an alcoholic digestif made from lemon rinds, alcohol, water and sugar. Other agricultural production includes citrus fruit, wine, nuts and olives. Wood craftsmanship is also developed.

History of Sorrento                                  

Sorrento was first a Phoenician colony, becoming then a port frequented by the Greeks for the commercial activity with Naples and with others southern cities.

It was named by the Greeks “Syrenusion” or “Syreon” (Siren’s land), in relation to the Sirens (creatures that with their song could fascinate the sailors) that Homer told in his famous work “Odyssey”.

After the rule of Oscans and Sannites, the area was submitted by the Romans who elected the area an holiday destination, as the numerous villas prove.

Sorrento was also the native country of Torquato Tasso and from time Sorrento has exercised a particular charm which 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, directors like De Sica, Gallone and Mastronardo. Among the famous visitors of Sorrento we can remember also Enrico Caruso, Giacomo Casanova, Scipione Breislak, Marion Crawford, Charles Dickens, Helman Melvill, Friedtich Nietzche ed Axel Munthe. This coasting town was included in the eighteenth- century among the main destinations of the Ground 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.

Culture

Sorrento was the birthplace of the poet Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), author of the Gerusalemme Liberata.

In the 1920s, famous Soviet writer Maxim Gorky lived in Sorrento.

The local football team is A.S. Sorrento Calcio who play in the Stadio Italia, and are currently in Serie C2 of the Italian Football League.