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2016
Anno XXXVI
LONDON NOVEMBER 2016
PERIODICO DI INFORMAZIONE TURISTICA Editrice SURRENTUM sas Dir. Resp. Antonino Siniscalchi Aut. Trib. Napoli n. 3104 del 15/4/1982 - Stampa La Sorrentina
It’s beautiful here!
www.surrentum.it www.surrentum.net www.surrentum.com
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Villa Fiorentino 2016
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Corso Italia, 53
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Mr. and Mrs. Fiorentino had Villa Fiorentino built for them in the 1930s. They bequeathed the Villa to the people of Sorrento in their wills. In 2006, leading members of the business and tourism communities formed the Sorrento Foundation with Mr. Gianluigi Aponte, owner of the Mediterranean Shipping Company, as its Chairman. The specific aims of the Foundation are to use the Villa to promote and develop tourism and culture in accordance with the wishes of Mr and Mrs Fiorentino. Since 2006, with the full cooperation of the Sorrento Council, Villa Fiorentino has hosted many prestigious cultural events such as Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci and Dali Exhibitions.
FONDAZIONE SORRENTO 80067 Sorrento www.fondazionesorrento.com
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Sorrento and the other towns on the coast were considered a “must see” on the Grand Tour, and it is as a result of this experience that local tourism has been able to move with the times, modernising its services and structures to satisfy the needs of today’s travellers. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the desire to make every guest feel perfectly at home and to transform their stay into an unforgettable experience. This is, and has to be, the reason why every year so many tourists of all ages and nationalities choose the Sorrento Coast as their ideal holiday destination. Giuseppe Cuomo Sorrento’s Major
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The “Fondazione Sorrento” (Sorrento Foundation) just turned 10 years old. Ten years during which, supporting the wishes of its testers wanting to benefit the city of Sorrento with the donation of the “Villa Fiorentino” complex, it has carried out cultural initiatives and tourism projects. The “Fondazione Sorrento” has allowed the city to host retrospectives of Dali, Picasso, Pomodoro, Sassu, Biasucci and Paladino: the best of 1900s art in Italy and Europe. Starting next year, the “Fondazione Sorrento”, meeting its statutory objectives, will expand its investments of energy and resources to better meet the needs of the area. These objectives can be summarized as follows: a) Making Villa Fiorentino a place of cultural, tourist and social aggregation. b) Extending the timeframe of the cultural initiatives with the aim of articulating the activities over twelve months. c) Proposing synergies in the area among institutions with converging purposes (Town hall, schools, cultural institutions, public entities, trade associations) to create a “tourism system” in the true sense of the word. The entire Board of Directors and staff of the “Fondazione Sorrento” are ready to take on the ambitious challenge. Gaetano Milano AD Fondazione Sorrento
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Sorrento Coast beauty The beauty of the Sorrento Coast comes from past centuries; it has faced days of splendour and time of crisis; yet, it still amazes visitors. A legend narrates that in remote times the Mermaids, which were living in the sea between Scilla and Cariddi, were attracted by a beautiful land and sea. Some of them decided to cross the Tyrrhenian Sea to swim in that sea, which embraces the land known by everyone as the Sorrento Peninsula. Now as then the cradle of the Mermaids has not lost its attraction: thousands of visitors set or renew their rendezvous every year to reach this unique terrace overlooking the sea, where the green colour of the rocky land merges into the turquoise sea. Here the coastline becomes an arena, from where it is possible to admire breathtaking landscapes, where the air is imbued with peacefulness and the scent of lemons. All this is Sorrento Peninsula: miles of fascinating charm, impressive landscapes lasting like postcards, a pillar of the Italian tourism, celebrating the pure beauty of this generous land, where it is still possible to feel bewitched by the sun diving into the sea, by paths piercing gardens and orchards, by ridges of tuff and rock, by inexpressible performances of beauty. Hence nature has given its best in the Sorrento Peninsula.
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Distances from Sorrento to: NAPOLI POMPEI ERCOLANO VESUVIO CASERTA CASSINO ROMA POSITANO AMALFI RAVELLO VIETRI SALERNO PAESTUM PALINURO ISCHIA CAPRI
KM. 48 KM. 20 KM. 40 KM. 40 KM. 60 KM. 150 KM. 240 KM. 22 KM. 31 KM. 35 KM. 45 KM. 50 KM. 98 KM. 122 MILES 30 MILES 8
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Sorrento already existed when Rome was founded, and gave its name to the peninsula that separates the gulfs of Napoli and Salerno.
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Sorrento Coast at the end of the first millennium it was a duchy, with it own currency. The duchy of Sorrento, initially stretching from the Sarno river to the tip of the peninsula at Punta della Campanella, lasted until the Swabian dynasty, when Vico Equense became a Università. Massa Lubrense became independent in 1467 under Ferdinand I of Aragon, Piano by decree signed by Joseph Bonaparte, Meta under the Bourbons on 27 November 1819, and Sant’Agnello by decree issued by the Kingdom of Italy on 10 December 1865. In ancient times Sorrento had an agricultural and maritime economy, and was also engaged in the manufacture of small glass containers. Wine from Sorrento was considered on a par with Falerno and praised by Horace in his satires. In the second millennium A.D. mulberries were grown (for the production of silk), and later walnuts and citrus fruits. Thanks to its citrus fruits the area came to be known as the “Land where lemon trees blossom”, and today the lemons are used to produce the famous “limoncello”, famous all over the world. It is hard to find a family living on the Sorrento Coast that does not have some kind of involvement with the sea: there were once shipyards in Sorrento, Piano, Meta and Vico Equense, and in 1838 no fewer than 216 vessels were launched, 13 in the harbour of Marina Grande in Sorrento. The famous boat from Sorrento called a “gozzo” is still constructed here, built using traditional methods passed down from father to son. Marina Grande was for centuries a harbour for these boats and for fi shermen, while today it is a thriving village where old traditions and tourism live side by side. Every year Sorrento hosts important events combining culture and tourism, the driving force of its economy. For over forty years the Siren Land has played an important role in world of cinematography hosting the “Incontri Internazionali del Cinema” and “Giornate Professionali del Cinema”. It has also been a promoter of classical music, organizing performances by some of the most prestigious musicians and orchestras in the world in the extraordinary scenery of the Chiostro di San Francesco. Many other sporting, artistic and cultural events attract visitors, including the Eduardo De Martino Yachting Prize, the Mid-summer Food Festival, and Christmas in Sorrento with the Nativity Scene Contest. It was during the era of the Grand Tour in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that Sorrento began to attracted a huge number of visitors, including political figures, members of the establishment, as well as the many authors and artists who immortalized it in words and pictures. In his “Travels in Two Sicilies”, written towards the end of the eighteenth century, the Englishman Henry Swinburne described the enchanting scenery and artistic treasures of Sorrento.
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The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche found the town beneficial to his health, and it was in Sorrento that Richard Wagner completed his “Parsifal”. The greatest Russian artist of the nineteenth century, Silvester Shchedrin, whose paintings of the land and sea around Sorrento can be found in some of the most prestigious museums in the world, died and was buried in Sorrento in 1830. During his second stay in the birthplace of poet Torquato Tasso in November 1932, Maxim Gorky founded nothing less than a Russian colony. The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen sojourned here twice and this year sees the celebration (in conjunction with Norway) of the centenary of his death. So many painters found inspiration for their masterpieces on the Sorrento Coast, just as the works of so many writers and poets were inspired by the beauty of the landscape. Today Sorrento can provide accommodation for eleven thousand people in over one hundred hotels, holiday villages, campsites and self-catering apartments. There are no fewer than four five-star establishments and just as many “historic hotels”, a conference centre (one of the best in Italy) and many venues offering conference facilities. The Siren Land also has a special place in the history of Neapolitan music, with approximately one hundred songs dedicated to Sorrento. The town’s theme tune is obviously none other than the onehundred-year-old “Torna a Surriento”, sung by all the greats both in Italy and abroad, but many other songs have been composed by great poets and musicians, including Lucio Dalla’s “Caruso”. The poet Aniello Califano (“Serenata a Surriento”, “‘O surdato nnamurato”) was from Sorrento, as was the musician Salve d’Esposito (“Anema e core”, “Me so’ mbriacato ‘e sole”). The tradition of the Tarantella is also still very much alive. The great Enrico Caruso came to Sorrento in search of peace to regain his strength, and stayed until just a few hours before he died. If tourism is the mainstay of Sorrento’s economy, the role of the craft industry, particularly marquetry and lace making, also has a long history. The origins of woodworking in Sorrento date back to the first half of the nineteenth century, when in 1830 Antonino Damora and Luigi Gargiulo introduced the art of marquetry and brought it popularity, making desk articles, pictures, trays and miniature chests of drawers in the early workshops.
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Hospitality
Sea and Nature
Sorrento Peninsula has been now and then one of the pillars of tourism in Italy and Campania. Its success from the touristic point of view is not independent from the hospitality system, which operates to accommodate visitors in this territory. We are talking of a system based on cutting-edge accommodation and catering enterprises, regularly updated to offer an excellent service. Generations of touristic operators have been contributing to offer to their guests the best possible vacation. Hospitality, art and culture have blessed the Sorrento Peninsula to become one of the most visited venues in Italy. As a matter of fact the whole local tourist industry is synergistically committed to offer to their guests a comfortable stay, specifically tailored on their needs and desires, wholly centred on the guests and their wellness. Within and outside the hotel rooms, guests are the protagonist of their vacation and the Sorrento Peninsula with its hotels and restaurants, the campsites, and the human resources employed in tourism is completely devoted to offer the wished vacations. Because quality is at home in the Sorrento Peninsula.
The sea represents an opportunity for the life and development of Sorrento. The town is an integral part of the Punta Campanella Marine Reserve, established to protect the marine flora and fauna and to protect fishing rights, one of the main assets in our community’s cultural heritage. Sorrento is also where the expansion of seagoing services and the upgrading of the beaches and coastlines is already in progress. This is not only to allow for new shipping routes for tourism, but also to enjoy the sea, either at any one of the succession of lidos from Marina di Alimuri, and along the coasts of Piano and Sant’Agnello as far as Sorrento, or on board a traditional “gozzo sorrentino” that has its natural habitat among the many landing and mooring places along the coast. The gozzo, depicted in so many paintings of the Gulf of Naples, has elements that have been its distinguishing features since the paintings by F. Bayard from the beginning of the 19th century. From the 1930s onwards, Sorrentine gozzi have been equipped with motors and with the boom in the 1960s the gozzo has become a pleasure craft for sea lovers. A tradition that becomes more and more consolidated as the years go by, especially in Marina Grande where fairly large boatyards still build these boats in wood or in fibreglass and wood, bringing together past and future in a unique emotion. Sorrento is in a perfect position for sea routes to and from the islands in the gulf: Capri and Ischia, plus the towns along the Amalfi Coast, as well as to Naples itself. In addition, Sorrento has become a mandatory stopping place for the great many ships that cruise the Mediterranean.
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There are many extraordinary natural resources in Sorrento Coast. Among them: the archaeological park of Capo di Sorrento all planted with citrus and olive groves and overlooking the amazing panorama of the ruins of Villa Pollio Felice. Equally breathtaking is the Le Tore Nature Park, 526 metres above sea level. The views across the Gulfs of Salerno and Naples are a joy that is truly unique. The area includes over 20 kilometres of trails that can be followed with an expert guide. QUEEN JOHANNA’S BATHS A place that emanates one of the richest of magical histories, steeped in charm. From Capo di Sorrento there is a road with ivy-covered walls. It trails among the shadow of vines and orange trees down towards the sea, and to Queen Johanna’s Baths. On first impact, the visitor sees a scene of rare beauty: a wide, natural basin linked to the sea by a narrow fissure in the rocks. The promontory area is occupied by the remains of a majestic Roman villa, built at the time of Emperor Domitian (81-96 B.C.) and belonged to Pollio Felice. Legend has it that he and his lover at the time, Queen Johanna II D’Anjou-Durazzo, often isolated themselves here from the rest of the world. These ruins are the most fascinating of the entire Sorrento Peninsula and were discovered in 1624 by Giovanni Vinaccia. No other villa from this period has been described in such detail as this one, in the verses of the Roman poet, Statius. Like other villas by the sea from Roman times, it has a mooring jetty and a “murenario”, a breeding tank for fish and eels and a lily pond. From the villa there is a wide rocky beach where you can bathe in crystalline waters.
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Gastronomy Visiting the Sorrento Peninsula is not just taking the possibility to let themselves relax into dream landscapes. If happiness is the nurture of the soul, along the Sorrento Coast you can put on some weight, and not just emotionally... In the Sorrento Peninsula sitting at a restaurant table becomes a true culinary experience, whose main aim is to satisfy and delight the guest. Hence the typical traditional meal of Sorrento and Naples parade, or better fly, on the competent hands of waiters. These dishes are prepared with typical local products, which make you drool only thinking of them. And here they are: meals tasting of sea and country, Mediterranean genuine and flavoured food, seasoned with the fresh scent of local lemons and endeavoured with the great wines of Southern Italy.... Prosit!
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To visit In Sorrento: OLD WALLS HOUSE OF TASSO CATHEDRAL SEDIL DOMINOVA CORREALE MUSEUM MUSEOBOTTEGA DELLA TARSIA SAN FRANCESCO’S CLOISTER The cloister dates back to the first half of the 7th century. Its architecture shows crossing tufa stone arches on two sides of the portico, an expression of late 14th century style, whilst on the other two sides there are round arches borne upon octagonal pilasters. Adjacent to the monastery is the church of San Francesco, dating back to the 16th century. In Vico Equense: CATHEDRAL MUSEO MINERALOGICO In Massa Lubrense: CATHEDRAL THE “DESERTO” MONASTERY In Piano di Sorrento: GEORGE VALLET MUSEUM In Sant’Agnello, HISTORICAL CENTER “IL PIZZO” HISTORICAL RESIDENCE In Meta di Sorrento BASILICA S. MARIA DEL LAURO NECROPOLI ROMANA RUINS
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London event
Since more than 10 years Hotels and Incoming Operators of Sorrentine Peninsula promote themselves under the brand of Sorrento Coast. They organize every year a dinnerparty during World Travel Market exibithion in London as United Kingdom is the most important source market for Sorrento Coast. This event is a way to say thank you to Tour Operators, Travel Agents and partners which promote Sorrento Coast in UK and of course it also is a big thank you to all UK guests visiting the Peninsula! In 2016 WTM party will be hosted by Conrad London St James and it will be focused on the Yellow Color. In Sorrento Coast land Yellow means Sun, Lemons, Flowers, Olive Oil and of course Limoncello. Come and spend your holidays in Sorrento Coast and discover our Yellow Gems!
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Sorrento Coast events SORRENTO COAST AREA During the whole year: Classic Music Concerts April: Good Friday Processions From November to January: Christmas Initiatives
SORRENTO May: International Cinema Meeting July and August: Classic, pop, jazz and blues music, dance and theater performances July: St. Anna festivity Fireworks in Marina Grande September: Fish Festival (Marina Grande) October: Grape Festival (Priora) From November to January: Special Christmas initiatives “M’Illumino d’Inverno”
VICO EQUENSE June: “Vico Festival” promoted by the Star Chef Gennaro Esposito. 4 days with 100 protagonists of the italian and internazional gourmet cuisine. July: Social World Film Festival July and August Festival: - “Arte e Orto” - Art and Vegetables (Montechiaro Village) - “Sagra del Riavulillo” - Local cheese (Arola Village) - “Festa dei Sapori Contadini” - Country flavours (Ticciano Village) - “I Profumi del Borgo Antico” – Ancient Scents (Belvedere Village) - “Sagra della Melanzana” – Aubergine Festival (Preazzano Village) - Mount Faito DOC Festival October: Gran Galà “Provolone del Monaco DOP” Cheese Festival
MASSA LUBRENSE July: “Limone in festa 2017” Classic & traditional music and lemon taste
PIANO DI SORRENTO Summertime 2017 June: Colli San Pietro Village - Colli in festa July: Marina di Cassano – “Marinando” August: Mortora Village – Assumption Feast August: Town center Pizzafest September: St. Michel Feast
S. AGNELLO July: “Sagra del Friariello” Broccoli Festival (Trasaella Village) August: “Mid-august in the historical center” August: “Fontanelle” Exhibition of Local Products August: “Notti d’Autore” (Maiano Village) September: “Le notti e il mare” Resort La Marinella Food & wine and performances
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3 December 2016 8 January 2017 Nativity Art inauguration
25 - 27 February 2017 Camellias Exhibition
in co-operation with “Garden Club Penisola Sorrentina”
VILLA FIORENTINO - SORRENTO
Il Presepe Napoletano a Villa Fiorentino
It is the 8th edition of the initiative that each year hosts over 30,000 visitors. The best artistic expressions of the ancient “nativity art” of the Campania region are exhibited in the grand scenery of Villa Fiorentino, offering visitors the possibility to know and appreciate firsthand the art resulting from an authentic passion.
March - April Springtime in Art at Villa Fiorentino
- retrospectives of contemporary Italian artists - sorrento young art gallery
3 DICEMBRE 2016 - 8 GENNAIO 2017
Opening of the exhibition Villa Fiorentino market
Over 20 stands will be set up with the exhibition and sales of typical Christmas products as well as “the delicacy workshop” that awaits you.
Le foto di questa pubblicazione sono tratte dall’archivio della Fondazione Sorrento
“Children’s village”
May - November
“Artevento” the ‘900 Italian sculpture followed by the 2017 Event
Marc Chagall paintings
VILLA FIORENTINO - SORRENTO
Inauguration with small rides, entertainment, and amusement. The village will occupy the entire grounds of Villa Fiorentino with the possibility to walk in the garden with its farmhouse between the orange and lemon trees in the scenery of the internal walls, while a pony and a reindeer liven up the visit for the younger children. The trip concludes with the meeting of Santa Claus…
June - September It’s Summertime
music and entertainment in the gardens of Villa Fiorentino Food and Wine Events Meetings with the Italian fashion and ...
3 DICEMBRE 2016 - 8 GENNAIO 2017
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December
Christmas Village Nativity Art at Villa Fiorentino
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FONDAZIONE SORRENTO Corso Italia, 53 80067 Sorrento www.fondazionesorrento.com