Sorrento: Exploring The Area Around Corso Italia, Incorporating Marina Grande & The Old Town

You can find Part 1 HERE.

Film Transcript:

CORSO ITALIA

Corso Italia is Sorrento’s main street. It runs right through Tasso Square, but I think that the most interesting part is at the western side of the square. The western side is the side you can see now up ahead. We’re looking at it from this angle so you know its position in relation to Tasso Square. However, we’re going to explore the street from the far end and work our way back to the square.

Here we are at the far end right next to Sorrento’s hospital. The first place we come to is the Piazza Andrea Veniero. This square often contains market stalls where you can buy souvenirs.

ROUTE TO MARINA GRANDE VIA THE CHURCH OF ANNUNCIATION

There’s a route down to the beach at Marina Grande that you can take from this square.  The route to Marina Grande involves turning left at the beginning of the square and then turning left again at the back of the square.  On the left we walk past the Church of Annunciation which is thought to be built on the site of and ancient temple to the goddess Cybele.

The journey to the beach involves navigating some of Sorrento’s ancient narrow backstreets.  Part way down you come to a viewing platform where you can get you first proper glimpse of the fishing village of Marina Grande.

THE GREEK GATE

We enter Marina Grande through the Greek Gate which was built in the fourth century BC after this part of Italy had been colonised by the Ancient Greeks. We are greeted by a view of the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius.

MARINA GRANDE

Here’s a view of Marina Grande as you got down the steps to the harbour area.  There’s an attractive collection of pastel coloured buildings around the harbour and you can see hotels built into the cliffs up above.

There are places where you can hire boats and book trips at Marina Grande.  Here you can see one boat on its way out.  As you can see there are quite a few small pleasure boats moored in the harbour.  Some of them are quite colourful.

Here you can see fishermen mending their nets.  You can also see boats from the fishing fleet together with some of their fishing equipment.

Going hand in hand with the catching of fish are the local selection of fish restaurants.  The distance between sea and table is a short one and this should ensure a good selection of very fresh seafood.  As you can see there are quite a range of places where you can eat.

This one that I went to is called Taverna Azzurra and like most of them is right next to the beech.  Here is some of the food that we had while eating there.

We’ll now take a look at the small beach.  There are plenty of places where you can rent sunbeds and parasols.  If you get on the front row you can sit while the water laps up against your feet.  Its also a nice place for bathing, though it can be a bit pebbly in places.  You can be joined at the waterside by they local bird life.  As you can see from the flag fluttering in the breeze above the beech, this is a blue flag beach.

If you look down the coast from Marina Grande you can see how Sorrento is built above quite tall cliffs.  This, of course, enhances the views that you have when looking out to see from Sorrento itself.  I’ll conclude this section of the film with the view of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples from Marina Grande.

We now continue our journey down Sorrento’s main street – Corso Italia.

CHAPLIN’S IRISH BAR

The next place we’re going to look at is on the left.  You can see its distinctive green awning up ahead.  This is Chaplin’s Irish Bar.  I include this in the film because it is close to where I usually stay and therefore serves as my local pub while I’m in Sorrento.

As you can see here the staff are very warm and friendly.  Here, Mario has a joke with my dad about his lack of understanding of the Italian language.  Some people come here to watch sporting events and there are numerous TV screens distributed throughout the bar.  According this flag, it also serves as the Sorrento Celtic Supporters’ Club.

Since it’s run by Italians, I refer to it as the Irish Bar with an Italian twist.  It’s therefore quite a unique place, and it attracts people from around the world, in addition to Ireland, and can have quite a cosmopolitan vibe.  It can sometimes get quite noisy with a lot of singing along and sometime people also opt to dance.  It can get quite busy and the staff will try to get people seats, so don’t be surprised if you make new friends.

We now move on from Chaplin’s and continue walking on Corso Italia towards Tasso Square.

RISTORANTI PARRUCCIANO FAVORITE

Further up the street on the right we come to a restaurant called Ristoranti Parrucciano Favorite.  People might not know that Sorrento was actually the site of a culinary innovation.  It was in this restaurant that cannelloni was invented over a century ago and at that time was called strascinata.  Up the stairs you can dine in a rather magnificent Mediterranean garden.

THE CITY WALLS

Before we get to the cathedral and bell tower, we reach a street on the right called Via Antonino Sersale, which leads to the city walls.  The street begins at this archway.  You can see the wall at the arch up ahead.  Next to the wall on the right you can see some metal gates.  The stairs behind them lead to the Parsano Bastion and part of the wall.  The sign on the gates gives the opening times when people can come and visit this feature of Sorrento.  The archaeological evidence suggests that Sorrento had walls as long ago as the 4^th century BC.  However, the current walls date back to the 16^th century.  They were built during the period of Spanish rule to defend againt Saracen pirates who raided various parts of the Italian peninsular.  Near the middle of this stretch of wall, behind a gate, you can see some old steps that go up to the top of the wall.  Looking back up towards the wall you can see how houses were subsequently built into it in more recent times.

We now return to the Corso Italia to continue our route towards Tasso Square.

THE CATHEDRAL AND BELL TOWER

The red and yellow coloured tower up ahead is an important Sorrento landmark – this is the bell tower of Sorrento Cathedral.  We see the cathedral on our right just before we reach the tower.  Here’s the tower from a different angle.  The columns beside the tower’s archway date back to ancient times.  The archway under the bell tower links Corso Italia to Via Santa Maria della Pieta. The space beneath the tower was used as a meeting place during the Middle Ages.  The lower part of the tower structure dates back to the 11^th century and the upper the 15^th.

THE OLD TOWN

If you look back across Corso Italia from under the Bell Tower you are looking straight down a street called Largo Padre Reginaldo Giuliani.  This is one of the streets leading off Corso Italia into the historic centre or old town of Sorrento.  To many, this part of town is known affectionately as the drains, though others don’t like this term. 

The next bit of footage starts at the opposite end of this street.  Here we are at the bottom of the hill heading in the direction of the cathedral.  In this area there a quite a few restaurants with waiters trying to persuade you into their particular establishment.  Up ahead you can hear the bells of the cathedral ringing out.

There are plenty of shops in the old town where you can buy souvenirs for friends and relatives back home.  One thing there is certainly a lot of in Sorrento is limoncello.  There are lots of nooks and crannies in the medieval streets of the maze like old town.  There are of course the usual shops selling Sorrento calendars to remind you of your holiday and Sorrento postcards to send to people at home.  In some ways the old town of Sorrento puts me in mind of the souks of North Africa and the Middle East or of the bazaars of the Arabian Nights.

THE CHRISTMAS SHOP

There’s a noteworthy shop down one of the alleyways of the old town.  That is the Christmas Shop.  You might be on your summer holidays but in here you can buy Christmas decorations to remind you of Sorrento in the midst of winter.  You can get some interesting decorations that you certainly would not be able to obtain in the shops back home.  Some of these are specific to Sorrento such as those shaped like lemons or those with Sorrentine landscapes painted on them.  They are all sold with Christmas music playing on merrily in the background.

We now head back out of the rabbit warran of the old town to Corso Italia.

LA PASSEGGIATA

As we re-enter Corso Italia I would like to say a few words about the Italian custom of La Passeggiata.  In Italy as the sun begins to go down, people engage in a social event known as La Passeggiata. This is when Italians dress up and embark on a slow promenade in a town’s main street or central piazza.  It is a time to see and be seen.  You will often see this on the Corso Italia with smartly dressed groups slowly walking and talking.  However, in Sorrento it may be difficult to distinguish between this and the many wedding groups that also walk through Sorrento’s streets.

Up ahead, on the far side of Tasso Square, we can see the yellow coloured Church of Antuario Della Maddona Del Carmine.  This concludes of our exploration of Corso Italia at the Western end of Tasso Square.