Sorrento's Siren

Finally! That's how I feel about getting down to Sorrento. It's one of those places that is only just over an hour away, in our extended backyard, so to speak. But it has taken us months to get there with many last-minute canceled trips.

The Amalfi Coast, just across the Bay of Naples, is one of the most breath-taking areas of Southern Italy. (See Vietri and Ravello pictures too.) Sorrento is named after the Greek word for siren and will seduce you with its simple ease, gorgeous views, cobble-stoned streets and friendly, English-speaking locals.

Rick Steve's Italy 2008  sets the scene:

Sorrento is "the gateway to the Amalfi Coast (with) an unspoiled old quarter, a lively main shopping street, and a spectacular cliffside setting."

Known for the terraced mountains stacked with orange, lemon and olive trees, the city is ripe with all-things sunny-Mediterranean, including plenty of restaurants for al fresco dinning.

Lemons are practically the city's logo, and the sour fruit graces hand-made ceramics, is stacked on grocery corners in endless varieties and sizes, and is the liqueur of choice. Lemoncello - a powerful lemony booze - is the speciality, and open-front shops are lined with rows of fancy glass bottles with the yellow digestif. Served chilled at the end of meals, the alcoholic beverage is believed to aid digestion.

  Grapefruit size lemons 

I actually picked up a bottle of melon-cello, creamy peach colored in a swirly bottle so skinny it's bound to tip-over without proper attention. Sorrento has expanded its digestif options from lemon to orange, melon, strawberry and Clementine, making quite a tourist token out of the potent brews.

Whether lemoncello shopping or not, the city offers quaint restaurants at every turn, plenty of cappuccino-sipping umbrella tables, seaside panoramic views and a shore-side marina hailing as many tourists by water as by train.  (There are countless ferries to sail you along the Amalfi Coast, out to the not-to-miss Isle of Capri, and back to Naples if desired.) And thankfully the sirens threw themselves into the oceans years ago and will not take you to your death in Sorrento! But you just might think you've died and gone to Italian heaven.

Complete collection of pictures here. (Hopefully by tomorrow; my upload program was having problems tonight! I'm too tired to fuss with it.)

Comments

[Teanna]

*Sigh* I don't think I could be any more jealous of you than I am!!! :)