The next stop on our tour of Southern Italy was Sorrento. A lovely, if touristy, seaside town south of Naples. We took a very comfortable train from Rome to Naples. True to form, the train arrived late in Rome, and then we had an additional hour delay on the one-hour trip to Naples.
Our incredible host in Sorrento arranged a ride from Naples to our little house on a hill in Sorrento. While it took a little time to find our driver, we made it to Sorrento about an hour after arriving in Naples.
Our Rental – Limoneto
On our drive to our rental, we passed through Sorrento, and then we kept going, which admittedly made me a little nervous about where our house was. In addition, the road going up to our 3-week accommodation was a bit frightening because it was a one-lane road with 2-way traffic and cars parked on both sides. Then, we arrived at what looked like a bus stop and he said get out here, I can’t take you further. Wow. Then I really got scared. But ever since we booked this place directly with the host, he has been super accessible over email and WhatsApp. Mike texted him and he said his mother was coming to pick us up.
Two minutes later, mom drove up from down a steep hill to pick us up. After loading the luggage, we took a one-minute drive back down the steep hill. It turned out that our host’s mother, Teresa, was really the onsite host but she didn’t speak much English. So we would text her son and he would call his mother and tell her what we needed. That is the way our entire visit went.
Teresa was incredibly gracious, even driving us to and from town our first evening to get groceries. After a few times driving up and down the hill to Sorrento, we started to realize that it really wasn’t very far, about 9 minutes, and everyone seemed really familiar with it. By the end of our visit, we were too.
The Farm House in Sorrento
The Limoneto house was very nice with incredible views over the Bay of Sorrento and the town and beyond to Mt. Vesuvius across the bay. Better yet, the air conditioning in the living room and the bedroom upstairs worked well, but there was no air conditioning in the bedroom downstairs so we bunked upstairs. I’m not sure if we have had a rental where the bedroom and bathroom were on different floors. Walking up and down the stairs to the bathroom was quite frightening at first, but we made it work.
Every morning I would wake, open the shutters, and walk onto the balcony to look at the view. Some mornings there would be an interesting ship in the harbor, sometimes large sailing ships, occasionally small cruise ships.
The only weird thing about the house was that the kitchen was in another building. A much older, huge, open-air room with the biggest table I think I have ever seen. The beams holding up the roof were actual trees and there were windows on two sides. The reason I say open air is that in one section there was just chicken wire. The biggest downside of the kitchen being in another building was that it was hot in there and when we opened the windows the bugs would come in. That being said because it was our private kitchen I could walk to the kitchen in my jammies.
Our home away from home was on a small farm. There were lemon trees, olive trees, apricots, grapes, herbs, and vegetables being grown and tended by hour host’s grandpa. They were most generous, providing us with homemade olive oil, tomato sauce, fresh fruit and vegetables, limoncello, and wine.
Getting Around the Hills of Sorrento
The house manual described a few ways to get around. We could walk about 10 minutes “down” the hill to town. It actually took us about 20 minutes and there were beautiful views along the way. After walking down the first time we agreed, down wasn’t bad, but there was no way we were going to walk back up.
There was also a bus, a little bigger than a van, that picked us up and dropped us off at the top of our little hill. We got pretty used to the walk up and back from the bus stop. It took us a bit to figure out the schedule but after we did it worked great, especially for coming back up to the house from town. The only downside was that the bus stopped running at 7 pm. That meant that if we had dinner in town we had to take a taxi back up to the house. Our first taxi back up the hill was a bit of a shock at 40€. So, after that, we tried to coordinate our trips better to minimize the taxi rides.
Our host also offered for Teresa to come to pick us up, but we didn’t want to take advantage of their hospitality.
The Town of Sorrento
Sorrento is a beautiful little town with small winding streets full of charming restaurants and tourist shops. The town is built on a cliff with a small fishing village on one side and a bigger boat harbor on the other side. In the middle are some man-made sunbathing jetties full of umbrellas for hire and little houses to change in. It is quite a sight from the park at the top of the cliff.
When we were in town we frequently saw tour groups wandering around town so it could become a bit crowded. The town is very popular with tourists but even with the crowds, it is a beautiful little town. The big selling points for this part of Italy are the lemons and the Limoncello, a strong lemon-flavored alcoholic drink. There are many shops with everything lemon from soaps to candy. There are also many reasonably priced clothing shops and a number of specialty blue and white-only clothing shops. The tiny streets with lemon, ceramics, and clothing shops are impossibly charming and well worth a visit. I know we will be happy to come back to Sorrento.
Food in Sorrento
Since we had a kitchen, we didn’t eat out as much as we did in Rome. But I do have a special call out to the fabulous tomatoes and bruschetta. We ate our fair share in Rome but we continued in Sorrento. The bread was good but the tomatoes were outstanding topped with homemade olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt. We lived on that during our stay. I will definitely miss those tomatoes, they were as good as the ones we used to grow.
In town, a few restaurants, in particular, stand out. The first, AZZ! Tavern, we stumbled into on our first night in town. They had wonderful pizza and pasta. We didn’t realize how good it was until we visited a few other restaurants so we went twice. They don’t reservations and there always seems to be a queue.
The second one was called Il Fuoro. We sat in a charming alleyway and had a wonderful meal.
Another night we went to Semola Pasta Bar Sorrento and had a very good meal. The shrimp wrapped with pasta strings was particularly good and unique. After a few Limoncello Spritz’s and some wine, I can’t really tell you how the food was but see for yourself.
Other Food Mentions
At O’Parrucchiano La Favorita we couldn’t get a reservation but we decided to stand in line one evening and we got a table without too much trouble. The setting in a lemon garden was spectacular and the restaurant is famous for inventing stuffed cannelloni. It turned out that we had the cannelloni first and it was very good but unfortunately the food went downhill from there. But the atmosphere made up for some of the disappointing food.
Last but not least, on our last night, we went to Il Borgo, which was literally directly above us on the hill. Part of the deal was that they would pick us up and drop us off and we knew the views would be spectacular. We weren’t disappointed.
Friends Visiting
We have been traveling for more than three years now. We sometimes invite friends to join us when we are staying in a place for a while where we have an extra bedroom. Some folks were finally able to join us in Sorrento. We took the opportunity to go to Capri, visit the Amalfi coast, and visit Pompeii during their visit. Because there were four of us, we were able to arrange private tours, which worked out great. I think our friends enjoyed the Italian vibe and the rustic nature of our farmhouse.
We were happy to be able to share some of our experiences traveling the world with our friends. We definitely hope that others will visit us during our travels.
Are you ready to visit Sorrento?
4 comments
Sounds like you scored an awesome apartment in Sorrento. If your travels take you to the Trulli region and you want to stay in a nice place run by a mom+pop (+daughter who can help translate) apartment in Alberobello, let me know.
Thanks, will do!
I am trying not to salivate too much over your food pictures as it’s past dinner time, but we are still driving up in the mountains to Kings Canyon National Park. Were you able to duplicate the pepper pasta that you love so much? Do you have a recipe now?
The pepper pasta recipe takes years to master. I think I’ll just go back to Rome every now and again.