Sorrento

  

 

 

Edward Hutton praised the beautiful views along winding roads along the southern Italian coast, and praised the ancient cliffside town of Sorrento which today seems to be largely populated by Englishmen.

   

But undoubtedly the greatest delight which Castellammare has to bestow upon the traveller is the coast road to Sorrento, of which she holds the key. There are in all Europe but three other routes corniches with which this can be compared—that between Nice and Mentone upon the French Riviera, that between Genova and Sestri upon the Riviera di Levante, and that, really a continuation of this from Castellammare to Sorrento, the road from Sorrento to Amalfi and on to Vietri. Each of these has its own peculiar charm and delight, and one is inclined to declare each in turn the most beautiful; but knowing them all, I think at least this may be said, that for variety and astonishment, for beauty of colour and old romance, those of the South surpass altogether those of the Rivieras. Nothing could well be more different from the road between Positano and Vietri than this between Castellammare and Sorrento, and here at any rate one mist give the apple to the former. …

 

The city of Sorrento, the city of S. Antonino, and its bishop, is one of the most curiously situated towns in Europe. It stands upon a great platform 300 feet or more over the sea out of which the great cliffs stand up sheer with only the narrowest  of beaches… The town is wholly delightful and full of the happiness of busy people strawplaiting, lace-making, or carving the olive wood here so plentifully provided. The whole place is a garden enclosed, Saracen in appearance with its white houses and flat roofs and shining cupolas, and especially in this that every garden is enclosed within a white wall, every orange grove is hidden, and so completely that but for the overpowering scent of orange blossom which fills all the by-ways you would not suspect the gardens you cannot see. Certainly there is something secret—how shall I say?—something sacred and withdrawn about Sorrento, so that you are not surprised to learn that of old, with its territory, all this piana was consecrated to Minerva, whose especial sanctuary was the great and famous temple set upon the promontory, which bore her name, Minervae Promontorium, and which we today call the Punta della Campanella…

 

Today Sorrento owes everything to its surroundings, which are so full of delight that a whole summer spent here cannot exhaust them. …the picturesque remains called the Bagno della Regina Giovanna, an ancient arched piscina, afford one of the noblest views of the great bay with Vesuvius rising beyond the blue sea. Thence eastward one may wander along the cliffs or up to the Deserto, the old Franciscan convent, whence there is another glorious view embracing the two bays of Naples and of Salerno, with Capri and in the background Monte Sant’ Angelo.

 

 

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Edward Hutton: Naples and Campania Revisited. London, 1958.  Pp. 195-199.