Sorrento

Sorrento is a spectacularly quaint city.  It is an ancient city - founded by the Greeks and built upon by Romans and a dozen succeeding societies, including the present one. The remnants of these earlier civilizations are everywhere visible, one period literally grafted onto an earlier one.  Modern, multi-story apartment buildings sit atop the rough stone blocks of Greek and Roman walls, while pedestrians, scooters and smart cars somehow manage to share narrow cobblestone streets from the Medieval era. And yet Sorrento still emerges as a harmonious and picturesque pastiche. In some places it seems as if both the new and modern city grew straight out of the rocky cliffs. It's hard to imagine where the original builders even started ... on stone steps that lead impossibly down along sheer walls to the bottoms of the deep ravines that cut through the city ... on finely chiseled stone and marble buildings perched precariously at the edge of vertical seaside cliffs that plunge hundreds of feet down to a thin lip of rocky beach.

I started my first full day in Sorrento with breakfast at the hotel (a boiled egg, slices of provolone cheese and fragrant prosciutto, bread, and coffee) and walked down to the tourism center to get some better maps of the city and suggestions on day hikes in the surrounding hills (more on that later).  I also stopped at a shop to buy a large scale map. The proprietress was sure I was either Italian or Spanish (from Spain), and we settled on Spanish. This happened in other places too, although most people were more comfortable with English rather than Spanish (my Italian vocabulary being shorter than this sentence). Maps and guidebook in hand, I sat on a sunny wrought iron bench in the Piazza S. Antonini to get my bearings and plan my day. It felt good in the sun with the cool wind. In fact it stayed breezy and cool all day (low 60s). The piazza is a well manicured patch of green surrounded by palm trees and the ever-present orange trees laden with fruit. From the piazza I went to the Church and Cloister of St. Francis (Chiesa e Chiostro S. Francesco). This monastary dates back to the 18th century, although it is made up of architectural elements literally taken from ancient "pagan" buildings. The inner cloister was particularly impressive - a meditative courtyard with a weeping willow and stone fountain surrounded by a walkway under Gothic arches. Rose vines twisted up the columns. Next door to the church is the Villa Comunale, a terrace at the edge of the seaside cliff above Marina San Francesco and with a panoramic view of the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius across the bay. The wind was really whipping here, but the view was wonderful. From here I made my way to Sorrento's 15th century cathedral. It's enormous and beautiful inside. It boasts a considerable variety of art from floor to arched and paneled ceilings, from a 16th century marble throne for the bishop, to 18th century paintings by Italian Renaissance masters, to 19th century wooden marquetry by Sorrentine craftsmen.

For lunch I treated myself to an Italian seafood extravaganza at Trattoria da Emilia along the Via Marina Grande (on the advice of my friends at Frommer's). It's a smallish place (about 6 tables) nestled at the bottom of the seaside cliff that is Sorrento's shore. To get there I walked the narrow cobbled streets of terraced apartments with their tiny wrought iron balconies, built on the still solid stone ruins of Greek and Roman walls. Variously colored reddish brown or gray, these moss-covered tufa brick walls were punctuated by the occasional alcove offering before the Virgin or other saints. The wind was blowing furiously as I approached the small restaurant. The wind was so strong and the water so close that I had to walk through sea spray to get to the door. Buongiorno. It was shellfish for me: lemon marinated mussels, gnocchi and clams (still in their multi-colored shells) in tomato sauce, and finally fried callamari (squid) and octopus, all washed down by a half liter of red table wine served in a small carafe (to think I almost agreed to a full liter!). Served at a leisurely pace, the meal was awesome, and I could finish none of it. In contrast to the other establishments in Sorrento, the portions were larger as was the staff.

After lunch I made my way to the Museo Bottega Della Tarsialignea which showcases the history of marquetry (inlaid wood) in Sorrento and is engaged in an effort to revive this craft amongst local artisans.  Marquetry craft (also known as intarsia) in Sorrento started in the early 19th century with French influence, and largely for export markets, especially English. It started with tables, a revival of a Renaissance tradition dating to 15th century religious work in Naples, and then extended to a variety of decorative applications, from books to combs. In the 19th century, marquetry in Sorrento picked up images of characteristic local activity - silk production and the growing of lemons (especially for export to the U.S.). The museum was well worth the time.

One of the more interesting aspects of Sorrento and the entire region is its long history as part of the Grand Tour, a must-see travel route initially for European elite dating to the early 17th century. For centuries this land has played an essential part on the Western imagination - a palimpsest for religious and poetic backdrops of classic nostalgia and classical ruins. Marquetry, like a lot of the well regarded artisanal activity from this region, has actually evolved in large part as a response to literally centuries of tourism. Tomorrow we visit the Amalfi Coast on our own Grand Tour.