SORRENTO - little gem on the coast of Southern Italy!

There are so many things I learned about this beautiful area of Italy and so much I would like to share... but, there's only so much I can actually share via this blog without boring everybody with too many details :)

Albert, my friend who is now stationed in Naples (he's a navy commender), has shared many interesting stories about Sorrento and its history.  The town is well known for the lemons and the famous Limonchello, sweet liquor! Tasty (and dangerous:)!!  And also for its wooden crafts - inlay wood. I had an opportunity to tour a private shop where they make inlay-wood furniture. Jasmine, the owner, who knows Larisa and Al very well, took us around their little factory and shed some light on the whole production process. It seems like a tedious, long process, that requires patience and lots of skill. The end product looks remarkable and I almost ended up with a wooden hutch! (thank god I'm back-packing and cannot shop... i would have gone bankrupt by now in Italy :)

Anyway, the city itself was very different years and years ago. There's a picture in my album of the 'original' site of the town (#10 on facebook) that was 3 or more layers lower than the current town.  The current town of Sorrento was built on landfill and was raised much higher above the sea level (as you can see on my photographs).

The town has many churches and the patron saint of Sorrento is St. Antonino.  

As many other Mediterranean towns, Sorrento streets are narrow, cobble-stone, and slippery. Architecture is impressive - tall, stone based buildings, with charming balconies, colorful flowers and many windows. 

One can take a ferry to the island of Capri, another gem on the coast of Italy! More about Capri later :))

To read more about Sorrento, go to wikipedia :))