SORRENTO
campania
Sites: Sorrento Centre, Cape Sorrento, Massa Lubrense, Marina Grande, Marina Piccola, Meta, Piano and Sant'Agnello.
SORRENTO CENTRE
The origins of Sorrento aren't known clearly. According to the legend, it was founded by Liparus the son of Ausone, which was son of Odysseus and Circe, and the first exponent of the Italic descent of Ausoni. So Sorrento should have been initially an Italic city, as alsotold by the ancient historian Strabo. But the structure of the old centre of Sorrento and some archaeological remains make us think it was a Greek city or at least it was heavily influenced by the Greeks. This is confirmed also by the presence on "Punta Campanella" (the extreme point of the peninsula) by a temple dedicated to Athena. The old centre of Sorrento shows the usual Greek and Roman plan, with parallel streets around the main axes (decumanus and cardo maximus) of "Via San Cesareo" and "Via Tasso", running straightly to the cardinal points. It partially keeps the original plan, nowadays occupied mainly by souvenir shops and tourist services, and partially has been cleared by the construction of the main road of "Corso Italia", done at the end of the XIX century and which crosses Sorrento from point to point. Between "Corso Italia" and "Via San Cesareo" there are some of the most representative buildings in the history of Sorrento. The Cathedral, seat for the Archbishop of Sorrento, was restructured several times but it saved an interesting Aragonese portal of the XV century. Nearby there is the "campanile" (a dislocated bell tower), with a medieval structure but decorated in the XVIII century. On the decuman there is the "Sedile Dominova", the only example of the medieval parliaments by noblemen (introduced by Angevins) which was remained in the whole Gulf of Naples, called either "Seggi" or "Sedili" (Seats).
"Piazza Tasso" on the "Corso Italia" is the unavoidable crossroads to reach every place in Sorrento. But the administrative and religious centre of Sorrento is "Piazza Sant'Antonino": on the opposite sides of this square there are the Town Hall, housed inside the Old Orphanage by the Convent of "Santa Maria delle Grazie" (Our Lady of Graces), and the Basilica of Sant'Antonino: in the crypt it is kept the reliquary of Sant'Antonino Abate, the Patron Saint of the city, portrayed also the statue in the middle of the square. Not far from "Piazza Sant'Antonino", there are the Church and the Convent of San Francesco, with the characteristic cloister nowadays used as scenery for concerts of classical music during the summer season. The cloister, with a rectangular plan, has columns and their capitals carved in tufa rocks and which form slender double lancet arches in Gothic Moresque. Its style isn't uniform because of several restoration works done in different times, but it is very suggestive. Many other churches and convents, villas and palaces are in the centre of Sorrento, but unfortunately they aren't all visitable. Among them we remember: the home of the poet Torquato Tasso and the one by his sister Cornelia; the palaces Veniero, Correale and Galantario; the churches of San Paolo, Ss. Annunziata, "Madonna del Carmine", Maria's Servants, of the "Addolorata". Finally we have to mention the museum Correale di Terranova, where are shown the highest examples of arts and crafts in Sorrento: inlaid wood works, embroidery, silks, furnishings.
In the vineyards behind the convent, on the edge of the cliffs, they made the "Villa Comunale" (Public Gardens) at the end of the XIX century, with a wonderful view over the bay in front of Sorrento. It is a small but graceful open space, pleasantly shady by the trees and with flowerbeds where they put some marble busts. The adjacent rooms of the convent nowadays house the local School of Arts, who continues the prestigious tradition of the inlaid wood works done by the craftsmen of Sorrento.
CAPE SORRENTO
Capo di Sorrento (Cape Sorrento) is the limestone promontory that closes on the West the bay of Sorrento, which has in the inner side the volcanic cliffs falling sheer on the sea. The road which leads to Capo di Sorrento is pleasantly panoramic and on its sides many hotels has been built in the Sixties, when there was a period of economic expansion. But to arrive to the cape you have to take a pedestrian street which starts from the car road to Massa Lubrense.
The street, paved with stones, goes down to the sea among terraces cultivated with olive trees, and in the last stretch the gaze can sweep over the lovely scenery of the bay in front of Sorrento up to the Vesuvius on the opposite side. On the point of the cape there are the remains of the famous Roman villa by Pollius Felix, belonging to the early imperial age, when the Roman aristrocracy elected the Gulf of Naples as preferred destination for their vacations, disseminating many and rich villas all over the coast. But, during the Roman Age, Sorrento wasn't always this paradise of leisures and beauty as in the first imperial age. After it had been conquered from the Sanniti in the V century BC, Surrentum entered gradually in the Roman influence and had periods of various fortune. During the Social War, Sorrento joined to the party of Mario through the Lega Nocerina, which was struck in battle in the 90 BC. The following year it was definitively submitted by Silla and transformed in colony of Sillan veterans, common punishment for many rebellious towns, divided among the winners. After the Empire was established, Sorrento became one of the most appreciated towns by the Roman aristocracy. Besides the Pollius' villa on the Capo, there were in Sorrento others remarkable villas, among which the one owned by the emperor Octavian, on the small promontory which divides the Marina Grande from the area of the actual harbour, at Marina Piccola. In this villa he exilied his nephew Agrippa Postumus. In the 79 AD Sorrento received serious damages by the earthquake caused from the renown eruption of the Vesuvio which caused the destruction of Ercolano and Pompeii. It also symbolically marked the end of that golden age.
Like the other Roman villas on the coast, the one owned by Pollius had its private landing place, the fish tanks for providing the banquets with fresh fish and a nymphaeum, here placed in a small cove connected to open sea by a cleft in the cliff. This cove is named "Bagni della Regina Giovanna" (Queen Joanna's Baths) because the popular tradition says that here came often the Angevin queen (who ruled Naples in the years around 1300) to take a bath far from indiscreet eyes. The villa extended also inland with several pavilions spread in the gardens and having each a different function: reception rooms, patronal and guests lodgings, thermal baths, servant lodgings, the farms to produce oil and wine, the kitchens, nymphaeums. Form these buildings it doesn't remain anything: the only remains are right on the cape, where there were probably the premises for first acceptance and the warehouses for provisions coming via the sea. The villa by Pollius Felix is famous since it was singed by the Latin poet Statius in the Silvae, where he celebrated its beauty and boasted of being a friend of its powerful owner. From the promontory it starts a long passage on piles over the rocks which lead to the opposite edge of Capo di Sorrento, looking at the bay of Puolo, in the territory of Massa Lubrense. From these rocks it is possible to take a bath in crystalline water, but advisable only to whom has a good mastery of swimming, both for the deep waters and for the strong currents running around the cape.
MASSA LUBRENSE
The territory of Massa Lubrense occupies all the final part of the Sorrento Peninsula, with a settlement divided into about thirty hamlets. The early testimonies about Massa belong to the X century, when it was property of the Sorrento Duchy. It succeeded to gain its freedom from Sorrento only in 1470. Its name is derived from the Langobard word "mansa", which defined a territorial unit, with the adjective "lubrense" related to the Church of "Madonna della Lobra", so named because it was built upon a preexisting pagan temple (delubrum, in latin). From the centre of Massa Lubrense starts the road leading to "Marina della Lobra", a seafaring suburb with the houses built in front of the seashore and of the harbour. At the entrance of the village there is the Church of "Santa Maria della Lobra " (Our Lady of the Lobra), built in 1528 to replace the former paleochristian church. Inside the church there is a beautiful pavement in majolica of the XVIII century and a lacunar ceiling. Near the church there is a franciscan convent: inside its cloister are kept some archaeological remains of the Greek and Roman Age. From Massa Lubrense you can continue along the coast and arrive at the headland of "Punta Campanella" or to choose the road that goes to the higher hamlets, where you can enjoy an incomparable panorama over both the Gulfs of Naples and Salerno, as testified also by the name of the most importante village in the territory of Massa Lubrense: "Sant'Agata sui Due Golfi" (St. Agata on Two Gulfs). It was a traditional summer resort for Neapolitan middle-class of the XIX century, for the fresh and healthy air that was enjoyable here thanks to the position exposed to all the winds.
The Sorrento Peninsula ends on south with the headland of "Punta Campanella", on which there are the remians of "Torre Minerva" (Minerva Tower) built in the XIV century by Robert of Anjou and used up to the XVII century to sight the ships of the Saracen pirates and alert for the danger by the sound of a small bell ("campanella" in Italian, from which the name). But in the antiquity this place was sacred, initially dedicated to the Syrens and after to Athena (Minerva for the Roman mythology). In this area, maybe right on the point, it rose the temple dedicated to the Syrens by the first Greek colonists and cited by many ancient historians, among whom Strabo and Plinius the Old. In the Classic Age, the temple was dedicated to Athena and they built the road coming from Sorrento, afterwards called "Via Minerva" by the Romans. In the final stretch of the road, leading to the extremity of "Punta Campanella", it is still visible in some points the stone pavement characteristic of the Roman roads. You can go to "Punta Campanella" starting from Termini, the last hamlet in Massa Lubrense before the point of the headland (as the name indicates, since it means "limits"). From Termini you can reach also the top of the hill that overhangs "Punta Campanella", Mount San Costanzo, where is also a characteristic hermitage of Byzantine origin. In spring the statue of San Costanzo, Patron Saint of Termini, is carried in procession from the village to the chapel on the top, where it is kept until the end of the summer. This area hasn't many beaches, except for the wide and the wonderful "Marina del Cantone", where you arrive coming down from Termini (or from Metrano) and passing through the hamlet of Nerano, in the middle of the slope and with houses and pergolas going coastwards. The road that leads there is long and tortuous, so many people prefer to come here via the sea by boat, especially with excursion from Capri. This limited affluence gives to "Marina del Cantone" a relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere, far from the clamour of the mass tourism.
MARINA GRANDE
The "Marina Grande" (Large Marina), which was the only seafaring village in Sorrento until the XV century, is located on the mouth of the ravine closing on the west the old city and crossed on top by the bridge of Parsano, from where it started the "Via Minerva" (Athena's Road) leading to the sanctuary on the "Punta Campanella". Marina Grande is separated from the centre of Sorrento by the promontory which housed the Roman villa of Agrippa Postumus, nephew of the Emperor Octavian Augustus. Even now we enter the "Marina Grande" (if we follow the pedestrian path) through the ancient gate, built with large blocks of limestone. For its construction typology (even if it was renovated many times) we estimate it belongs to the III century BC. From here entered the Saracen pirates who ravaged Sorrento in 1558, because of the betrayal of a slave who, as told by the tradition, in the middle of the night secretly opened the gate, otherwise impregnable. The "Marina Grande" of Sorrento has been touched only partially by the touristic development which has instead changed radically the "Marina Piccola". It has better saved its peculiarity of seafaring suburb, thanks to the character of its inhabitants, who have always formed a community much united and tenaciously attached to their family values and to their working and religious traditions. Here the beach is felt and experienced as a collective space (as in the past) for the work and the free time of the whole community, as demonstrated by the presence on the sand of the fishing nets, the equipments and the beached boats.
On this beach, as a shipyard in the open air, they were built the famous "gozzi sorrentini", typical boats from this area, with a single lateen sail, long from 6 to 12 meters, manageable and reliable, practically unsinkable. The mastery of the craftsmen was so renown that those boats were adopted by fishermen and sailors from all over the gulf and from the islands, who came to Sorrento to order their boats. Heirs of this tradition are the motor boats (Gozzi) built nowadays in Sorrento and in the surroundings. In the middle of the Marina there is the Church of Sant'Anna, the Patroness of the village, who is celebrated on the first Sunday after the 26th of July, which is the day dedicated to this Saint. For this occasion the village is adorned with illuminations, the bay is populated by boats and they present a show of fireworks. This festivity is the Christian heir of a pagan popular feast, with fires on the water and banquets, when the boats came here taking the typical products from the surroundings. The feast ended with music and dances on the beach all night long. Nowadays the seashore of the "Marina Grande", besides the houses and the boats of fishermen, sees the presence of some restaurants and bathing establishments, which however don't alter its aspect but become part of the environment, without modifying its original character of seafaring village. Even if the "Marina Grande" is now joined to the centre of Sorrento also by an asphalted road, the city is farther than it seems and this community continues to live following its own rhythm and its priorities.
MARINA PICCOLA
The "Marina Piccola" (Small Marina, so named in order to distinguish it from the other one, which is larger and called "Marina Grande") is the place where is the harbour of Sorrento and where land the ferries and hydrofoils coming from other localities in the Gulf of Naples. The construction of the port began in 1912, but the "Marina Piccola" was even before the landing point preferred by incoming visitors, because it was closer to the centre of Sorrento. Then it was named "Marina di Capo Cervo", from the name of the small promontory which overhangs it. The main characteristic of Sorrento is to be not a maritime city, even if it is on the sea: the high coast falls steeply over the sea without a shore (keeping far from the sea and encouraging the contacts inland) and it is interrupted only in few points by narrow and deep ravines, worn by water running from the "Monti Lattari". The oldest nucleus of Sorrento was erected on that tract of the coast isolated between two connected ravines, which worked as surrounding moat for defence. On the outlets of ravines to the sea, they rose the two marinas of Sorrento, detached from the town and not protected. The "Marina Piccola" is located on the mouth of "Vallone dei Mulini" (Mills' Ravine), which bordered the town of Sorrento on the east. Where it was the main gate to the city ("Porta Maggiore"), the ravine was crossed by a bridge joining Sorrento to the rest of the flat country outside city walls. The "Marina Piccola" could be reached by another gate, under the Basilica of Sant'Antonino, on top of a steep stairway nowadays interrupted by the car road. When the harbour was built, the old and poor fishermen houses on the seashore, in a typical mediterranean style with the climbing staircases and vaulted rooftops to collect the rain water, were replaced with multistoried houses in modern style because they wanted to show tourist and travellers a more respectable aspect, less popular. It was the time of "risanamenti" (slums clearance) when the new Italian Government thought to recover and advance the impoverished areas by means of radical intervention.
Nowadays "Marina Piccola" is an important shunting station: more than the third part of all international tourists travelling in the Gulf of Naples pass on this harbour. Besides the natural and artistic beauties of the city and its surroundings, Sorrento has been able to propose itself as the center of a larger touristic area, giving hospitality also to those want to visit the near localities of Capri, Pompeii and Positano with daily excursions. In order to satisfy the upcoming needs, it has been built an other terminal for hydrofoils outside the harbour. Near the harbour of "Marina Piccola" there are the bathing establishments of Sorrento. Initially they were private beaches for clients of the hotels (built right on the edge of the overhanging cliff, replacing the noble villas provided with private stairways to the beach below), but after they opened to other vacationers too. Since the sand beach is very small and wasn't able to receive many bathers, the establishments extend towards the sea supported with piles, in such a characteristic way. Because their exposure to the north (and since they are over the water), here the summer sultriness is less heavy and easier to bear. From this side of the "Marina Piccola", a ramp carved into the tufa cliff leads to the upper terrace of "Villa Comunale" (Public Gardens), one of the few points of Sorrento coast which is free to visit (the other ones are in private properties, villas and hotels), with an amazing view over the Gulf of Naples. These gardens were once the vineyards of the near Convento of St. Francis.
META, PIANO AND SANT'AGNELLO
The fertile plain on the east of Sorrento, already called "Planities" by Romans because it appeared as a flat terrace, was generically named "Piano di Sorrento" (Plain of Sorrento) and it is nowadays divided into three municipalities of "Meta di Sorrento", "Piano di Sorrento" and "Sant'Agnello". The "Porta Maggiore" (Main Gate) of Sorrento was also called "Porta del Piano" (Gate of the Plain) since it joined the city with its flat country, which was under the jurisdiction of Sorrento up to the Napoleonic Age. During the French Decade, the territory of Sorrento was divided between the City of Sorrento and the Plain of Sorrento, which so became self-governing. After the return of the Bourbons, who built the road joining Sorrento to Castellammare, they create the municipality of "Meta di Sorrento", the first we meet coming from the inland. Finally, after the unification of Italy, also "Sant'Agnello" became autonomous, in order to divide uniformly the territory among the municipalities. It occupied the area between Sorrento and Piano.
Coming by car from the Sorrentina National Road, beyond "Punta Scutolo", which divides the area of Sorrento from the inner part of the Peninsula (with "Vico Equense" and Mount Faito), we arrive to "Meta di Sorrento" (Destination Sorrento), so named because here came the old Roman road, which started from "Vico Equense" and climbed the mountain. This place was landmarked by a temple dedicated to Minerva, upon which was built a paleochristian church, replaced in the XVIII century by the Basilica of "Madonna del Lauro" (Our Lady of Laurel), which is the symbol of Meta with its dome paneled with majolica and its characteristic bell-tower. From the church it starts the road leading to the "Marina di Meta". Along the way it rises the town with the palaces of the sea captains and of ship proprietors. In fact Meta had once a great tradition of sailors, belonging to the Bourbon Age: until there were the sail ships, Meta kept a leading place among Italian municipalities as regards to the registered tonnage. On a side of "Marina di Meta" it stretches the large and beautiful beach of Alimuri, a resort much frequented and appreciated.
Going on along the coast we arrive to "Marina di Cassano", the seafaring hamlet of "Piano di Sorrento", once renown for the presence of shipyards with a long tradition. In the centre of Piano, in the area called Caruotto, there was the main marketplace of fruits and vegetables in the peninsula, which had a great importance between the XIX and XX century, when Sorrento reached a position of great importance in the world market of citrus fruits: the lemons and oranges of Sorrento were liked and requested from all continents. After "Piano di Sorrento" (along the way to Sorrento) there is "Sant'Agnello", named after its Patron Saint, which is venerated in the beautiful baroque church with the same name. On its side there is the imposing campanile and both are preceeded by a stairway as large as the whole facade. In this church by tradition they came from the neighbourhood the husbands of parturient women, to ask the Saint for a good result of the birth. From the square in front of the church, which was the former centre of the town, they start the roads to the hills (Trasaella and "Colli di Fontanelle" - Fontanelle Hills - still rich of greenery and trees) and to the seaside (the ex-Capuchin Convent, nowadays with many villas and hotels).
The most suggestive point of the seaside of Sant'Agnello is, without doubt, the beach of Marinella, which was the landing point of a Roman villa: it is placed on the mouth of a ravine, between the tufa cliffs, and it is overhung by a terrace. From here the road continues towards Sorrento with a single belvedere, before to find the Museum Correale. The seaside of Sorrento hasn't a promenade, but only some panoramic points because, since the Roman Age, it was occupied by private villas with their own descents to the sea. This habit was resumed starting from the XVIII century up to the XIX century. Nowadays the most part of this noble villas has been transformed into luxury hotels, each with wonderful belvedere and private beach.
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