This tour includes a private English-speaking guide (only for you) at your disposal for roughly 2 hours
You will meet our local professional English-speaking guide by your accommodation in Sorrento (or at a pre-arranged meeting point in Sorrento) to start this walking tour (duration 2 hours).
Sorrento is located on a cliff of tuff and its coastline is reflected in the Gulf of Naples. Sorrento gives the name to the peninsula (Penisola Sorrentina) that divides the Gulf of Naples from that of Salerno. Thanks to its geographical position, the city enjoys a mild climate, between the green hills and blue of the sea. These characteristics have made of Sorrento one of the most sought after and requested destinations of international tourism.
Sorrento, between myth and history, exists since the foundation of Rome with the name of Land of the Sirens, Syrentum. This name was suggested by the Greeks, fascinated by many streams that flow water into the sea. A city, an authentic castrum (fortress), defended on three sides by deep valleys and on the fourth side by the sea from which it rises of about 50 meters.
After the Osci and Samnites domination, Sorrento came under Roman rule. Romans too appreciated its beauty, so much so that Sorrento became a municipium and home of the nobles Romans in the Imperial age, as evidenced by many vestiges of the Roman era, among which is the Villa of Asinius Pollio Felice between Capo di Sorrento and the beach of Puolo. What remains of this villa occupies today all the space behind the top of the promontory that goes straight down to the beach known as the Queen Giovanna. The villa was built in the time of Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) and was sung by the Latin poet Publio Papinio Statius in the poem Le Selve (Forest). At the end of the first millennium it became a duchy, with its own currency. The nobility of Sorrento gathered in the seats of Porta and Dominova, the only existing in the Naples area after their removal due to the Napoleonic law of April 25, 1800.
Among the most important monuments of Sorrento one can mention the Convent of St. Francis dated back to XIV century, where from many decades until today take place the summer shows of the Music Festival of Sorrento; the bell tower of the Cathedral Church, the Sedil Dominova (in S. Cesareo street) and some buildings along Via S. Maria della Pietá street.
The main income of Sorrento, which engages and involves the entire peninsula, is tourism as its cornerstone. Tourism developed exceptionally here since the time of the Grand Tour (XVIII and XIX centuries). Actually Sorrento has always been a destination for visitors, Italians and foreigners, who have described and painted it as one of the main tourist cities of Campania region and Italy. Famous people have visited it such as Lord Byron, Keats, Goethe and Walter Scott. Moreover Sorrento is the birthplace of the poet Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), author of the Gerusalemme Liberata. Today Sorrento is a great centre of departure for the excursions to Capri and the Amalfi Coast, Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius, Naples and even Rome.
Sorrento is famous also for the production of Limoncello (a Lemon liqueur made from lemons, liquor, and sugar). In the towns of the Sorrento Peninsula there is the very old habit of producing homemade liqueurs. In past centuries the families of Sorrento demonstrated their hospitality by offering a wide variety of liqueurs to their guests, all produced according to ancient recipes that are jealously handed down from generation to generation, a tradition still very rooted. Among the liqueurs of Sorrento and its Peninsula, the limoncello is certainly the best known and appreciated.
Together with our local professional English-speaking guide, you'll walk along the old city centre up to the main square Piazza Tasso (where you’ll see the statues dedicated to the writer Torquato and to Saint’Antonino, the patron saint of the town) and along Corso Italia (the main street) to appreciate the beauties of Sorrento.
