Sorrento Area Holidays

This pocket of Italy’s west coast is fast becoming one of the country’s holiday front-runners. The Sorrento Area hugs the edge of the Bay of Naples, and most of its cliffside towns look across the water to the namesake city. Things are a little less hectic around here, though – you’ve got teeny tiny towns where traditional cafés are king, plus a charming tangle of shopping streets in Sorrento itself.

Sorrento is the brightest and boldest character in these parts. Its slinky streets are stashed with every-colour shoe stores, kaleidoscopic gelato bars and souvenir shops that have everything from limoncello to boxes of biscotti. Pizzas are done best on the streets around Piazza Tasso, and you can knock back seafood with sea views if you head to Marina Grande.

A rocky shoreline means beaches are few and far between, but that hasn’t stopped the Sorrento Area from bulking up its sunbathing credentials. Sorrento and its smaller neighbours, Piano di Sorrento and Sant’Agnello, have wooden platforms polka-dotted with loungers and brollies. You’ll find a rare stripe of sand in Meta di Sorrento, plus some pretty seaside spots on the island of Ischia.

You can’t go anywhere in the Sorrento Area without spying the pointy peak of Mount Vesuvius – the region’s infamous volcano. It’s been snoozing for a while now, but you can see what it’s capable of by popping to Pompeii and Herculaneum. These two ancient towns were smothered by molten ash and mud from the erupting goliath, which left them in a permanent state of preservation. Tours are ten-a-penny, so you can get up close to the ruins and relics.