Loving Life in Italy: Sorrento

Italians have been attracted to the coasts of Campania for millennia, building villas and palazzi overlooking the surrounding deep blue seas. But after WWII, the coasts of Campania became a playground for the rich-and-famous from around the world. Movie stars, millionaires, playboys and girls, politicians, and celebrities of every ilk made the Island of Capri, the Amalfi Coast and the town of Sorrento as famous as themselves. Lavish parties, expensive yachts, luxury hotels, and villas popped up everywhere. And who could blame them with the turquoise seas, cliffside towns and villages, gorgeous scenery, fabulous weather, and sumptuous Italian food. The Campania Coast is one of the most scenic and culture-rich areas of Italy. Today, it is still popular among Italians, but it is also accessible to less well-heeled from around the world, like us.

During our fabulous tour of Italy’s Campania region last year, we stayed several days in the beautiful coastal town of Sorrento. Famous for IGP-protected lemons and limoncello, Sorrento is perched on tufa cliffs of the Sorrentine Peninsula, overlooking the Gulf of Naples. Sorrento is a great base from which to see this incredibly beautiful area of Italy, and the restaurants in Sorrento are second to known.

This is the first in a series of posts about our travels in Italy. In this series, we will take you to Sorrento and Naples, but also to some lesser known places like the islands of Procida and Ischia, the Royal Palace of Caserta, the ruins of Herculaneum, and to Cetara, a little fishing village on the Amalfi Coast. Please stand by for these additional posts. Click on Travel Italy for more.

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The view of the Sorrentine Coast in this photo is from SS 145, the road to Sorrento. The marina of the town of Meta is in the foreground and Sorrento is in the distance from where the ferry departed. SS 145 winds along the north coast of the Sorrentine Peninsula from Pompeii to Sorrento. There are several small pull-offs on the road but you have to be careful because they are very popular and the road is busy.

For the summer of 2022, traffic restrictions were introduced on the Amalfi coast from Vietri sul Mare to Positano. The alternate license plate number system was intended to alleviate the congestion along the coastal road. SS 145 to Sorrento was not affected, but it would be wise to check for restrictions in the year you plan to travel on the Sorrentine Peninsula.

Sorrento’s Historic Centre

Corso Italia is perfect for the evening passeggiata (stroll) before stopping for a gelato or an aperitivo. Families, friends, and couples enjoy this tradition as a way of socializing. Italians enjoy the passeggiata throughout Italy.

Sorrento’s historic centre is a lovely, mostly-pedestrian area consisting of arts and craft shops, restaurants, and bars. The historic centre and the business district of Sorrento are on a plateau atop the cliffs that overlook the Gulf of Naples. The plateau slopes gently towards the cliffs, so their are no big hills to walk up. Walking in the historic centre is not difficult.

In Italy, a “bar” is a place that serves coffee at, well, a bar. Italians have their classic breakfast, a cornetto and a cappuccino, while standing at a bar. Many Italians pop into a bar up to 10 times a day to satisfy their formidable coffee habit. Bars often have some tables too, but coffee costs extra if you use them. Bars also serve panini and light lunches. Most bars serve alcohol too, but they close at 8:00 p.m., when the normal work day ends.

The entire Sorrentine peninsula, is famous for lemons. But the area along the north coast of the peninsula grows a unique IGP-protected lemon called “femminello sorrentino” that is more elongated, more acidic or tangy, but with a mild sweetness. This lemon also goes by the name Ovale di Sorrento. The Sorrento lemon is good enough to eat raw, like an orange. Even the peel is edible. Just sprinkle a little sugar on a wedge and dig in.

Sorrentini use IGP lemons in preserves, lemonade, pastries, gelato and granita, desserts, and cooking. But they primarily use the lemons to make the famous Sorrento limoncello. As shown in the photo above, there are several other fruit-based creams and liqueurs made on the Sorrentine Peninsula.

Peperoncini (chili peppers) is common to Southern Italian cooking. Place a whole pepper in hot oil for just a minute to scent the oil and add a little “heat” before adding other ingredients. Or chop a pepper up and leave it in the oil to add extra heat to the dish.

Dining in Sorrento’s Historic Centre

If there is a coastal area of Italy that does NOT specialize in fish and seafood, we haven’t found it. Sorrento certainly isn’t it. And we happily indulged in the plethora of fish and seafood restaurants available in Sorrento, and indeed in the whole area around the Gulf of Naples and the Amalfi Coast. You see, we live in Lucca, Tuscany, and being only 21 km from the Ligurian Sea you might think fish and seafood are plentiful there. That is not the case. More on this in a future post. Suffice to say, when we get to a coast we indulge.

Fresh is the key to all good fish and seafood dishes, and it doesn’t get much fresher than caught that morning.

Ristorante Accènto is a lovely seafood restaurant on the main street of the historic centre of Sorrento. The antipasto (appetizer) of Cozze Fresche (Fresh Mussels) had a very familiar presentation; it was very fresh mussels in a garlic sauce worthy of la scarpetta. Yummm!

The primi piatti (first course) at Accentò was a little less familiar; it was house-made paccheri pasta with clams dressed in a surprising pistachio pesto with the scent of local lemons. Double yummm!

We certainly recommend Ristorante Accènto in Sorrento.

Wherever you dine, don’t forget to “fai la scarpetta”. That is “do the little shoe”. Break off pieces of bread and sop up the sauce left in your plate like you are scooping it up with a shoe. You are not finished eating until you do the little shoe, and the chef will be insulted if you don’t savour the sauce. It is acceptable to use your hands to handle the bread when dining in less formal environments. In more formal settings, pierce a small piece of bread with your fork and go at it. 😆 Don’t limit your scarpetta to pasta sauces; savour any agreeable sauces left over from meat, seafood, or vegetable dishes too.

While in Sorrento, I just had to try lemon pasta sauce, which is popular in the area. Given the heavenly Sorrento lemon, my expectations were high. The house-made scialatielli pasta above, from Ristorante Stoviglie, had the intense umami flavour of tuna bottarga with lemon zest. It measured up.

Fritture di Calamari (Deep-fried Squid) is a staple of restaurants on Italian coasts. The calamari at Ristorante Stoviglie was tender with a subtle flavour, unlike the tough, flavourless calamari I’ve avoided all my life in Ontario, Canada.

Deb, a friend, and I went to Ristorante Stoviglie for dinner and we raved about the meals, the service, and the friendly staff. Deb had vegetarian tacos. Our friend had the chick pea meatballs with cherry compote. Desserts were Creme Inglese and a Pineapple dessert with ginger, mint, and lime, I think. Anyway, it was all great.

Ristorante Stoviglie was a fabulous restaurant on one of the side streets of the historic centre. I say “was” because I saw statements on Tripadvisor and Google that Ristorante Stoviglie is either permanently closed or closed until March 2023. If the restaurant is resurrected we recommend giving it a try. We wished we’d had more days in Sorrento so we could have dined there again.

For variety, we saw some Asian restaurants and a couple of British-pub style restaurants on the main street of the historic centre. After a week of wine and Italian food, we were happy to find The Horse Shoe for decent fish n’ chips with a good pint. An older Italian couple run The Horse Shoe restaurant and they greet you with unbridled enthusiasm. Recommended.

While you are in Sorrento, don’t make the mistake we made. Try “Il dolce di Sorrento”, Delizie al Limone (Lemon Delights).

Marina Grande and Spiaggia di Sorrento

Walking down via Torquato Tasso and then via Marina Grande you eventually reach the Greek Gate, one of Sorrento’s original city gates built in the 4th century BC. Through the gate you arrive at a marina and beach, called La Marina Grande and La Spiaggia di Sorrento. Several restaurants line the beach. The beach is quite small; Sorrento is not a beach destination. The marina serves recreational boaters and working fishermen.

La Marina Grande has fabulous views of the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. Mount Vesuvius, the villain in the histories of Pompeii and Hercullanium, last erupted in 1944, causing major problems for the allied forces that liberated Italy in WWII. Prior to the 79 CE eruption, Vesuvius was 2-3 times taller than it is today and had only one peak.

Dining at the Water’s Edge

As you near the bottom of via Marina Grande, and you first see La Marina Grande, La Spiaggia di Sorrento, and the Gulf of Naples, look to your right for the tiny Bar Caffetteria Snack Da Giniello. 

I had a classic Italian breakfast at this little bar and thoroughly enjoyed it; the view of the Gulf of Naples from the outdoor seating area was so relaxing; the cappuccino was excellent; the price was good; and the service was great! The very pleasant man running the bar offered to spread crema amarena (black cherry jam) and dust sugar on the plain cornetto I ordered. Wow, that made the cornetto excellent too!

Apparently the little bar serves lunch, dinner, brunch, and aperitivo too, but I only had breakfast there. The online community rates it highly. I certainly recommend the breakfast. If we lived in Sorrento this bar would be a frequent stop for me.

There are several excellent seafood restaurants down by La Marina Grande. I had excellent seafood risotto at ‘O Puledrone Restaurant. The fishermen cooperative, owners of the restaurant, caught the seafood that morning. As the sign says, they want you to ask about the fresh catch of the day. Highly recommended.

I have a theory that restaurants with easily changeable menus, whether they be online (QR code) or handwritten, may have the freshest ingredients. This is particularly true for seafood restaurants because they can change their menu based on the catch of the day. Of course, having changeable menus may just mean the restaurant is too cheap to print menus. 😄

And when a restaurant menu says some ingredients may be frozen, I ask what is fresh.

Il Monazzero di Teresina is another seafood restaurant at La Marina Grande. My lunch of grilled seafood and grilled vegetables was great! It is no wonder the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest in the world. I think I could lose some weight living here.

For an unique touch, my after-lunch caffè macchiato at Il Monazzero di Teresina came in a little Chinese tea cup. I highly recommend Il Monazzero di Teresina.

Le Tre Sorelle Restaurant (The Three Sisters), at La Marina Grande, advertises that Jamie Oliver ate there once and recommends their restaurant, but I cannot recommend it. One of the sisters was standing outside the restaurant trying to coerce people to eat there. I started with a Sorrento Spritz there, but I decided to move on after reading the online reviews for the restaurant. The sister was a bit aggressive to my liking and, anyway, I am not a big fan of Jamie Oliver’s cooking.

While people-watching in Sorrento, or for an aperitivo with friends, be sure to try a refreshing Sorrento Spritz, or two. Molto buono! The drink that was created on the Amalfi Coast is called a Limoncello Spritz there, but the Sorrentini call it a Sorrento Spritz. The Sorrento Spritz is made with Limoncello produced from the IGP lemons of Sorrento, ice, Prosecco, club soda, and the garnish of your choice; I go for half a slice of lemon and a sprig of mint. A great reason to bring home that bottle of limoncello. Limoncello has become a traditional festive gift; it makes a very nice gift at Christmas and Easter, perhaps combined with some festive cookies.

Limoncello is made from only the yellow peel of lemons. Peels are put in a jar of pure alcohol and allowed to macerate for several weeks. It is then combined with a simple syrup and allowed to age for at least a month. The origins of limoncello are debated. I support the version that someone’s grandmother created it. Whoever originated limoncello, it is generally agreed that it was created around 1900 as a homemade concoction on the Sorrentine Peninsula or the islands nearby.

Sorrento Harbour

If you walk down via Luigi de Maio from Piazza Tasso, you reach another beach area and the main harbour where the ferry docks. This beach area is mainly private beach clubs and beaches connected to the 4 and 5 star hotels that line that shore. 

For those who do not relish walking up and down the hills/cliffs, there are bus services to both beach areas and the harbour. The buses stop in Piazza Tasso, in the historic centre.

A Cooking Class in Sorrento

In my opinion, the cuisine in Campania is one of the best in all of Italy. Perhaps that is because it is the Italian cuisine familiar to most North Americans, like me; these are the most popular dishes brought over to North America during the Great Migration of the 20th century. It is la cucina povera, the cuisine of the poor. We lived in Ontario, Canada, so seafood was seldom available to us. Land animals, pasta, vegetables, and fruit were the basis of most of my childhood Italian dishes. Macaroni; spaghetti with tomato sauce; pasta ai fagioli (pasta and beans); spaghetti aglio e olio (spaghetti with garlic and oil); eggplant parmesan; Caprese salad; meatballs in tomato sauce; mozzarella and provolone cheeses; lemons; calzones; and, of course, the ubiquitous pizza all come from the Campania region.

I took a cooking class in Sorrento. Luckily, I didn’t get any of the dishes from my childhood; I already know how to make them. The cooking class was at Quanto Basta Cooking School, in Sorrento. “Quanta basta” means “as much as you need”, which is a common phrase in Italian cookbooks, similar to the phrase “to taste” in English language cookbooks. This cooking class included a four-course dinner featuring fish and seafood.

Being a little off-season (October), I was the only pupil on that weeknight. Regardless, Tony welcomed me and he put on the entire class just for me. It was fun, informative, and very professional. True to the Italian way of cooking simple food with great flavours, I learned how to make 4 easy and great recipes and several new cooking tips that I took home to my kitchen. Recommend highly.

At Quanto Basta Cooking School, I turned these delicate, soft-shell shrimp, called Gobbetto (hunchbacks), into a quick and easy appetizer or snack. The gambero gobbetto were so good, I almost forgot to take a photo before eating them all. No shelling required. Eat the torso and tail, shell and all. They are delicious and sweet-tasting, even raw, and so simple to make. Sometimes they are available with blue eggs inside, which are mild tasting.

Gobbetto live throughout the Mediterranean Sea, but the heaviest concentrations are in the Strait of Messina and the Tyrrhenian Sea.

You can also add Gobbetto to a seafood pasta for an extra special touch. Cooking them on a grill brings out all their sweetness.

Fresh, handmade scialatielli pasta, was the base of the first course (prima piatta). It is among the easiest fresh pastas to cut by hand because the shape is just 3-4″ long, thin rectangles. But the real star of this dish was the seafood sauce of fresh, unshelled clams and mussels. Four ingredients: garlic, extra virgin olive oil, seafood (clams and mussels), and cherry tomatoes. Simple, simple, simple.

What’s under that hard salt-crust? It’s a whole whitefish, baked to light and moist perfection. This Fish Baked in Salt Crust recipe was a simple third-course (seconda piatta), and it tasted amazing. The flesh came easily off the bones.

Tiramisù was my dessert course (dolce). This single-serving tiramisù is “home-style” because it contains uncooked eggs. Restaurants do not typically make tiramisù with uncooked eggs due to the risk of salmonella poisoning. Once again, it was simple and it tasted great!

Marquetry/Inlaid Wood Craft

Sorrento is famous for tarsia lignea (wooden inlay), the craft of making inlaid wood products including decorative items like music boxes, centrepiece items like tables, and even wall art. The craft first appeared in Benedictine monasteries in the sixth or seventh century. Marquetry, the craft’s English name, gained popularity in Sorrento in the 19th century and has been handed down from generation to generation ever since.

The craftsman cuts wafer-thin pieces of wood and alternates them with foils of other materials, such as ivory or nacre, and with metals and semiprecious stones.

As with marquetry in other parts of the world, Sorrento marquetry has its own unique styles and materials that are popular in Sorrento.

There are the inexpensive examples of marquetry available as souvenirs in the many gift shops around Sorrento. There are some exquisite examples of the true art of marquetry in the Cathedral of Saints Philip and James, commonly known as the Sorrento Cathedral, and located in the historic town centre. The doors of the cathedral are particularly impressive.

And don’t miss the Wood Inlay Museum and Craft Shop (Museo Bottega della Tarsia Lignea) in a beautifully restored palazzo, also located in the historic town centre.

Stay tuned (subscribe) for the next post in our Italy series.