Getting to Sorrento

Sit back and savour the views
 

You will know your holiday has well and truly started when you are travelling from the airport to Sorrento and enjoy your first glimpses of the beautiful bay of Naples along the way.

Curreri operates several buses each day from
Naples Airport to Sorrento and back

The nearest airport to Sorrento is the Aeroporto Internazionale di Napoli, which is about 50 km (31 miles) to the north of the resort, and you can fly there from many different airports in the UK and other countries. There are also internal flights to Naples from Genoa, Catania, Turin, Rome, Milan, Bergamo, Verona, Palermo, and Trieste.

You can travel from the airport to Sorrento by either road, rail, or sea. A regular bus service is operated by Curreri Viaggi from outside airport Arrivals to the centre of Sorrento for €13 per person.

A taxi booked in advance by your hotel to pick you up at the airport will cost approximately  €130 - 150 for a small group.

The road from Castellammare to Sorrento
offers some spectacular views across the bay

However, you could take a taxi into the centre of Naples to the Circumvesuviana railway station at Porta Nolana and board a local train, which will reach Sorrento in just over an hour.

If you would enjoy arriving by sea, take a taxi to Molo Beverello in Naples from where there are regular ferries across the bay to Sorrento. The voyage will take about 45 minutes and you will arrive at the harbour of Marina Piccola. 

From there, you can either walk up into the centre of Sorrento, use the lift to get up to the town, or take a bus or taxi.

As you travel to Sorrento, enjoy the spectacular scenery along the way. First you will be able to see the volcano Vesuvius at close quarters, then between Castellammare di Stabia and Sorrento, you will follow the twists and turns of the coastal road and enjoy some spectacular vistas across the bay.

(Based on prices in October 2024).

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Spaghetti alla puttanesca

Quick and easy southern Italian pasta dish has a colourful history

Spaghetti alla puttanesca is a tasty dish
that is easy to cook at home

The distinctive aroma and piquant taste of a puttanesca sauce is something I always associate with Naples. It somehow evokes the atmosphere of the city for me because you enjoy the enticing smell of tomatoes and olives cooked in garlic as you pass restaurants hidden behind unobtrusive doors in the narrow streets in the centre.  

There are various theories about how the sauce, which can be served with either spaghetti or linguine, acquired its name. Puttana is the Italian word for prostitute, so it means literally, spaghetti cooked ‘in the style of the prostitute.’

People have speculated that the dish could have been invented to lure men into houses of ill repute, to be served to them while they waited their turn. Or, the prostitutes may have cooked it to eat themselves, because it was quick and easy to make.

Another version is that pasta cooked alla puttanesca was convenient for married women to make so that they could spend less time in the kitchen and more time with their Neapolitan lovers.

The sauce began to crop up on restaurant menus under various names in the 19th century and the ingredients would vary slightly, according to the area of Italy.

There was a reference to the dish in a 1960s Italian novel when one of the characters says: ‘Spaghetti alla puttanesca, like they make in Siricusa’. In Sicily, the sauce is referred to as spaghetti alla siciliana and has green peppers added to it.

Most Neapolitan cookery books do not suggest adding anchovies to the sauce, but In Lazio, where they also claim it as their own, puttanesca sauce contains chopped anchovies.

It has also been claimed the sauce was invented at a restaurant on the island of Ischia out in the bay of Naples. A group of customers arrived late in the evening when the restaurant had practically run out of ingredients. The customers asked the owner just to give them what he had left, so he quickly made a sauce using four tomatoes, two olives and some capers and garlic, to serve with their spaghetti.

You can use either fresh or tinned tomatoes to make spaghetti alla puttanesca. If you want to make the Neapolitan version, you should fry some garlic in olive oil, add the tomatoes, capers, black olives, and parsley and let it simmer for about ten minutes while the spaghetti is cooking. 

I sometimes add a couple of chopped anchovies and a pinch of dried oregano to it, just because I enjoy the taste. Buon appetito!

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Shrine to San Giuseppe Moscati in Sorrento

Overlooking Sorrento’s main square, Piazza Tasso, the yellow-painted 16th century Sanctuary of the Madonna del Carmine will be the focus of attention today as people visit the shrine to San Giuseppe Moscati in the side chapel to the left of the altar.

Sanctuary of the Madonna del
Carmine overlooks Piazza Tasso

Doctor and scientist Giuseppe Moscati was beatified by Pope Paul VI on this day in 1975 and his feast day was made 16 November after he was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1987.

Giuseppe was renowned for his kindness and generosity to his patients and even before his death people talked of ‘miracle’ cures being achieved by him.

The saint was born into a big family in Benevento in Campania in 1880. His father, a lawyer and magistrate, was active in the church and Giuseppe inherited his piety.

The family later moved to Naples and Giuseppe enrolled in the medical school of the University of Naples in 1897.

On graduating he went to work in a hospital but continued with his brilliant scientific research and attended Mass frequently.

When Vesuvius erupted in 1906 he helped evacuate all the elderly and paralysed patients before the roof collapsed on the hospital under the weight of the ash.

He worked tirelessly to research ways to eradicate cholera in Naples and personally cared for many soldiers wounded in the First World War.

He was compassionate to the poor and often gave them money as well as free medical treatment and a prescription.

Giuseppe died suddenly in 1927 at the age of 46 having been on duty at the hospital only that morning.

After his death, a young man dying from leukaemia was suddenly and inexplicably cured when his mother dreamed of a doctor in a white coat. She was able to identify the doctor as Blessed Giuseppe after her priest showed her a photograph. The man, still fit and well, attended the canonisation ceremony of Giuseppe Moscati conducted by Pope John Paul II.

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Spend the day in ‘royal’ Naples

If you go to Naples for the day while staying in Sorrento, spend some time in the area around Piazza del Plebiscito, where there are many buildings with royal connections that are well worth seeing.

You can arrive by boat and quickly walk up from the harbour to this area, which is the smartest part of the city.

Piazza del Plebiscito is not far from the port

The impressive Palazzo Reale at the eastern end of Piazza del Plebiscito was one of the residences of the Kings of Naples at the time the city was capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The palace, which dates back to 1600, is now home to a 30-room museum and the largest library in southern Italy, which are both open to the public.

It is nice to browse in the shops of the elegant Galleria Umberto I nearby, which was built in the 1880s and named after one of the Savoy Kings of Italy.

You could pause for refreshments at Gran Caffè Gambrinus, founded in 1860 in Piazza Trieste e Trento. It was later remodelled in stile liberty (art nouveau) and became a meeting place for artists and intellectuals in Naples.

Close to the royal palace is one of the oldest opera houses in the world, built for a Bourbon King of Naples.

Teatro di San Carlo was officially opened on 4 November in 1737, way ahead of La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice.

Palazzo Reale viewed from the Caffe Gambrinus

Built in Via San Carlo close to Piazza Plebiscito, Teatro di San Carlo quickly became one of the most important opera houses in Europe and renowned for its excellent productions.

The theatre was designed by Giovanni Antonio Medrano for Charles I, and took just eight months to build.

The official inauguration was on the King’s saint’s day, the festival of San Carlo, on the evening of 4 November. There was a performance of L’Achille in Sciro by Pietro Metastasio with music by Domenico Sarro, who also conducted the orchestra for the music for two ballets.

This was 41 years before La Scala and 55 years before La Fenice opened. San Carlo is now believed to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, remaining opera houses in the world.

Both Rossini and Donizetti served as artistic directors at San Carlo and the world premieres of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Rossini’s Mosè were performed there.

In the magnificent auditorium, the focal point is the royal box surmounted by the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

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Festival of San Gennaro in Naples

 

Worshippers, civic dignitaries, scholars and tourists meet together in the Duomo in Naples every year on 19 September to remember the martyrdom of the patron saint of the city, San Gennaro.

Every year a service is held during which the dried blood of the saint, which is kept in glass phials in the Duomo, turns to liquid.

The Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in the background.

The practice of gathering blood for relics was a common practice at the time of the decapitation of San Gennaro in 305 and the ritual of praying for the miracle of liquefaction dates back to the 13th century in Naples.

The festival of the saint’s martyrdom is celebrated by Neapolitan communities all over the world and the recurrence of the miracle each year is televised and reported in the newspapers.

On the few occasions that the miracle hasn’t happened, Neapolitains have dreaded a catastrophe occurring. In 1980 after the liquefaction failed to take place a massive earthquake struck the region. 

Sorrento lift

Let the lift from the port do the hard work for you

The long, tiring climb uphill from the port or beach is a thing of the past for Sorrento visitors and residents.

Sign for the lift in
 Villa Communale

Two lifts now connect the centre of town with Marina Piccola and the nearby beaches.

Travellers returning from a day trip to Capri, Ischia or Naples can be whisked up from the port to Piazza Gargiulo in the Villa Communale in 20 seconds.
From there it is just a few minutes walk to Piazza Tasso and the shops, bars, restaurants and hotels in the centre of the resort.
A single trip costs 1 euro but you can also buy a return ticket for 1.80. Between May and September the lift runs from 7.30 in the morning till midnight. For more information visit www.sorrentolift.it.

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See Naples and die!

Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in background

It was on 17 July, 1823 that Marguerite, Lady Blessington began her Neapolitan Journals with an account of her first glimpse of the city that was to become her home for the next two and a half years.
She wrote: “ Naples burst upon us from the steep hill above the Campo Santo, and never did aught so bright and dazzling meet my gaze. Innumerable towers, domes and steeples, rose above palaces, intermingled with terraces and verdant foliage. The bay, with its placid waters, lay stretched before us, bounded on the left by a chain of mountains, with Vesuvius, sending up its blue incense to the Cloudless sky.”
Lady Blessington was to fall in love with Naples and embrace the culture, attending local events, making what at the time were adventurous excursions and entertaining Neapolitan aristocrats and intellectuals at the former royal palace that became her home.

Castel dell'Ovo - little changed since
 Lady Blessington's time

Those who know Naples will recognise in her vivid descriptions places that have remained unchanged for the last 200 years. She also provides a valuable insight into what life was like at the time for ordinary people as well as the rich and privileged.
A society beauty, she came to Naples after her marriage to Lord Blessington while making a long European tour and immediately became fascinated by the local customs, food and traditions. She also visited Ercolano, Paestum, Capri, Ischia and Sorrento and made an ascent of Vesuvius on an ass.
After her arrival she recalled: “We ordered our postilions to pause on the brow of the hill, that we might gaze on the beautiful panorama before us; and as our eyes dwelt on it, we were ready to acknowledge that the old Neapolitan phrase of ‘Vedi Napoli e poi mori’, had a meaning, for they who die without having seen Naples, have missed one of the most enchanting views in the world.”
People who already love Naples will find her journals witty and endearing and those who have never visited the city will be inspired to go there as soon as possible.
You can read an abridged version of Lady Blessington’s Neapolitan Journals in Edith Clay’s book Lady Blessington at Naples published by Hamish Hamilton. There are second hand copies currently available on Amazon.

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