Sorrento sights

What to see and do in Sorrento

Tourist information:
Via L. de Maio 35 (inside the Circolo dei Forestieri, just down from Piazza S. Antonio)
tel. +39-081-807-4033
www.sorrentotourism.com

Best Sorrento hotels
**Casa Astarita B&B [€€–€€€]
*Hotel Villa di Sorrento [€€–€€€€]
*La Tonnarella [€€€–€€€€]
Hotel Mignon [€€]
Hotel del Corso [€€–€€€]
» More hotels in Sorrento [from €34]
» B&Bs in Sorrento [from €30]
» Apartments in Sorrento [from €34]

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• Private Tour: Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi and Ravello Day Trip from Naples

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Sorrento guide
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FAQSorrento's modest sights consist of the 14th-century cloisters of San Francesco on Via V. Veneto (now an art school and popular for weddings) and the neighboring Villa Comunale gardens with views down to the marina and up the coastline.

The baroque church of S. Antonino memorializes a quirky local saint who was famous for battling seas monsters. Be sure to pop into the *crypt to see the crazy collection of ex votos and prayers to the town's patron. Full story

The Duomo has some fine modern intarsia (inlaid wood) work on its doors (1990s) and the choir stalls (1930s). Full story

Turn up Via Antonino Sersale, behind the Duomo, to see some remaining bits of the medieval city walls and the Arco Romano, a Roman city gate.

Sorrento's museum

There is a small museum at the east end of town, the Museo Correale, Via Correale 48 (tel. +39-081-878-1846). The hodgepodge collection is no great shakes (certainly not at €6 admission), but worth doing if you're around town for a while. It includes lots of inlaid wood furnishings, majolica, porcelain figurines, Neapolitan baroque paintings (plus a Rubens), and crumbling bits of Roman statuary to remind you of the city's venerable—if little visible—heritage. The property also sports marvelous views over the gardens to the Bay of Sorrento.

The museum open Wed–Mon 9:30am to 1:30pm (July-Sept also open Sat evenings from 8:30–10:45pm).

The passeggiata

Luckily, although it lacks in sightseeing, Sorrento has some great *passeggiata action along the streets of the old town, especially along modern Corso Italia and the parallel and cobbled Via S. Cesareo, which was once the old Decumanus Maximus of the Roman town. It's lined with souvenir shops and purveyors of Sorrento's most popular souvenir, limoncello liqueur. Full story

The eternal card game under the Sedile Dominova

While tourists and locals mill about the streets in the late afternoon, the town elders (or at least those who are members of the Worker's Society of Mutual Support) gather on the 15th century loggia of the Sedile Dominova at the corner of Via S. Cesareo and Via P.R. Giuliano to play inscrutable Italian cards games under the 18th-century frescoes. (Be sure you filter back amid the bar umbrellas on the tiny piazza out front to glimpse the Sedile's majolica dome of green and yellow dragon scales growing weeds.)

Swimming in Sorrento

Although it's a resort town, don't come to Sorrento expecting beaches. While the water's a bit cleaner than along most of the bay, swimming here is mainly off of piers jutting out over the rocks plus a few teensy pebble and black sand beaches that rarely get sun.

What's more, all of them are private (read: pay, usually €6–€8 to enter and get a chair; more if you want an umbrella) and require an elevator's ride down from the town. (If you're interested, look for these elevators along Via Marina Grande.)

Shopping in Sorrento

Sorrento's two great contributions to the souvenir trade are:

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This material was last updated January 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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