Sorrento

Indigenous villages stood here from the 8th century BC on a route used by Etruscan traders, and the oldest remains of the town are Oscan, from about 600 BC. Legend credited its founding to a descendant of Ulysses, and a great sanctuary on the tip of the peninsula, the Athenaion, was said to have been founded by him for the cult of the Sirens, from whom Sorrento may take its name. As Surrentum it was subject to Nuceria, joined the revolt of the Italian allies in 90 BC and received a Roman colony. It was famous for its wine, its fish and its red pottery, wealthy Romans built villas along the coast, and the modern streets still follow the ancient plan.

Sorrento became an archbishopric around 420. After Rome it passed to the Ostrogoths and Byzantium, resisted Lombard sieges, and in the 9th century became an autonomous duchy, fighting Amalfi, the Saracens and the Lombards of Benevento. The Normans ended its independence when Roger II took it in 1137. On 13 June 1558 an Ottoman fleet under Dragut and Piali sacked the town and reportedly carried off 2,000 captives, which led to new walls; a revolt against Spanish rule followed in 1648, and plague in 1656.

In the 19th century farming, trade and tourism flourished, a road to Castellammare di Stabia was opened under Ferdinand II, and in 1861 the town joined the Kingdom of Italy. It developed into a resort, visited by Byron, Keats, Goethe, Dickens, Wagner and Ibsen; Nietzsche spent six months here in 1876, and Maxim Gorky lived here in exile from 1922 to 1932.

The poet Torquato Tasso, author of Jerusalem Delivered, was born in Sorrento in 1544 and baptised in its cathedral, and the main square bears his name. The town's name went round the world with "Torna a Surriento", Come Back to Sorrento, composed in 1894 by Ernesto De Curtis to words by his brother Giambattista and now one of the best-known Neapolitan songs. In the summer of 1985 Lucio Dalla composed his song "Caruso" in Sorrento.

Holy Week is the great religious moment of the year. On Good Friday two processions pass through the streets: the procession of Our Lady of Sorrows, known as the Visit to the Sepulchres, organised by the confraternity of Saint Monica, and the procession of the Crucified Christ, organised by the confraternity of the Death. The patron saint, Sant'Antonino, an abbot and hermit of the 7th century, rests in the basilica that the townspeople built in his honour.

Myth runs deep here. The Sirens who tried to lure Ulysses were said to live on the Li Galli islands off Punta Campanella, and local tradition holds that Queen Giovanna of Anjou spent her summers in Sorrento; the natural pool at the Capo di Sorrento bears her name. Craft traditions — inlaid woodwork, or tarsia lignea, cabinet-making, linen and lace — have a museum of their own and fill the town's shops.

About 14,800 people live in Sorrento, on the northern coast of the peninsula. The town has been the seat of the archbishops of Sorrento-Castellammare di Stabia since 1986, and its football club, FC Sorrento, plays at the Stadio Italia.

The economy once rested on farming, crafts and shipbuilding. Today it depends overwhelmingly on tourism, which has brought a proliferation of hotels, holiday lets and restaurants, drawn by the town's culture and its sea. The crafts of cabinet-making, inlaid wood, linen and lace survive, but mainly for foreign customers, and the shipyards that once built merchant ships and fishing boats for the whole peninsula now produce little. Lemons, oranges, wine, nuts and olives are still grown on the terraces around town, and Sorrento lemons carry a protected geographical indication.

The season shapes the year. From spring to autumn the streets around Piazza Tasso are packed with visitors arriving by train, bus and boat, and the Circumvesuviana fills with day-trippers and commuters. In winter the pace slows and residents have the town largely to themselves. As on the rest of the coast, traffic on the narrow peninsula roads is a constant topic.

Lemons define Sorrento's kitchen. The Sorrento lemons grown on the terraces of the peninsula carry a protected geographical indication, and their peel is steeped in alcohol with water and sugar to make limoncello, the lemon liqueur produced especially around the Gulf of Naples and sold in many shops in town. The delizia al limone, a lemon-cream sponge cake, was created by the Sorrento pastry cook Carmine Marzuillo in 1978.

The town's best-known dish is gnocchi alla sorrentina, potato gnocchi dressed with Neapolitan ragù and fior di latte cheese and baked in a small single-portion clay pot. The peninsula also has its own cheeses in Neapolitan cuisine, among them the delicate fresh caciottella of the Sorrento peninsula and the burrino di Sorrento, a small provolone with a heart of butter.

In antiquity Surrentum was famous for its wine and fish, and both still matter: restaurants gather at the fishing harbour of Marina Grande, and the terraces above town produce wine, olives and nuts alongside the citrus. Evenings often begin with a drink at a café on Piazza Tasso, and meals end with a small glass of limoncello, served chilled.