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History of
Sorrento (Back to
Sorrento main information page)
Sorrento
was first a Phoenician colony, becoming then a port
frequented by the Greeks for the commercial activity with
Naples and with others southern cities.
It was named by the Greeks ?Syrenusion? or ?Syreon?
(Siren?s land), in relation to the Sirens (creatures that
with their song could fascinate the sailors) that Homer
told in his famous work ?Odyssey?.
After the rule of Oscans and Sannites, the area was submitted by
the Romans who elected the area an holiday destination,
as the numerous villas prove.
Sorrento was also the native country of Torquato Tasso
and from time Sorrento has exercised a particular charm
which has attracted poets and literary men like Goethe,
Lamartine, Stendhal, De Bouchard, Byron
to D?Annunzio, Ibsen, Douglas, musicians
like Rossini, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Wagner,
painters like Pinelli, Fernet, Lindstrom,
photographers like De Luca and the brothers Alinari,
directors like De Sica, Gallone and Mastronardo.
Among the famous visitors of Sorrento we can
remember also Enrico Caruso, Giacomo Casanova,
Scipione Breislak, Marion Crawford, Charles
Dickens, Helman Melvill, Friedtich Nietzche ed
Axel Munthe. This coasting town was included in the
eighteenth- century among the main destinations of the Ground
Tour, a journey among the most significant Italian cities,
that was made by the foreign intellectuals who wanted to
study in depth the Italian history, art and culture.
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