Sorrento Life Style

Those staying at Hotel & Resort Le Axidie can not fail to visit the city of Sorrento, reachable by sea (with convenient departures from the Dock of Marina d'Equa, in front of the Resort, at which they purchased the tickets) and by land, with the Circumvesuviana (in which case you have to get off just at the last stop "Sorrento"). To reach the Circumvesuviana, we offer a free shuttle service to and from the station and the city center.

In Sorrento is dedicated to one of the most famous Neapolitan songs, Torna a Surriento. The song was composed for the visit to Sorrento by Giuseppe Zanardelli, then president of the Council of Ministers on 15 September 1902. The mayor of the town, and owner Zanardelli hotel at which he was staying, he took the brothers Gian Battista and Ernesto de Curtis of composing a song to celebrate the illustrious visitor, with the hope of getting in return some interventions in favor of Sorrento, including the opening of a post office. Ernesto De Curtis recovered an old melody that he had composed some years before, and his brother wrote of casting a text suitable to the occasion: thus was born Torna a Surriento.

Legend has it that Sorrento derives its name from the mythical mermaids, half woman half bird, which pushed the sailors to be shipwrecked against its rocks.

Probably of Greek origin, it was controlled by the Romans in 89 a. C. Bishopric from 420, passed to the Byzantines in 552, and from the ninth century was an independent duchy, struggling with the nearby towns of Amalfi and Salerno.

In 1137 the Duchy of Sorrento was built in the Norman kingdom and since then followed the political fate of Naples. The old town still shows the path of orthogonal streets of Roman origin, while to the mountain is surrounded by sixteenth century walls. They are the Cathedral, rebuilt in the fifteenth century, with neo-Gothic facade, and the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, with a remarkable fourteenth-century cloister.

The Correale Museum are on display collections of Greek and Roman artefacts and Capodimonte porcelain, with a section of paintings of the XVII-XIX century; from the park you can enjoy a magnificent view of the gulf. At Punta del Capo, 3 km to the west, are considered Roman ruins of the villa of Pollio Felice (first century A.D.). Another seaside villa is the villa of Agrippa Postumus. The villa was built by the unfortunate grandson of Augustus. Currently you can only see the ruins of the fishponds. The villa was part of a large monumental complex which was later incorporated in the monastery of San Paolo.

In 1955 he was shot in Sorrento the film Pane amore e ... directed by Dino Risi with Sophia Loren and Vittorio De Sica.

To the archaeo-trekking, finally, we recommend visiting the Regina Giovanna and Punta Campanella (Marine Protected Area), which are among the wonders of the Sorrento peninsula.