Sorrento, known dialectally as "Surient", is the most important city on the Sorrento Peninsula which juts out into the sea between the Bay of Naples and the Gulf of Sorrento. The city is characterized by fertile lemon and orange groves and is bordered to the west, south and east by deep gorges, while to the north a wall of rock drops sharply to the sea. Sorrento is the seat of an archbishop. The city was originally a Pelasgic settlement and was later settled by Greeks from the Lipari Islands. Greek cults endured here, even after Sorrento came under Roman domination. The city reached its zenith during the first century of the Roman Empire, when Capri and Sorrento were the favored residences of Augustus, Marc Aurelius and Tiberius and commerce flourished. Torquato Tasso, author of "Jerusalem Delivered" and the central figure of a tragedy by Goethe, was born here in 1544.

Attractions in Sorrento and its Surroundings
The cathedral of Saints Filippo and Giacomo (15th century), in Romanic style, contains 18th century paintings on canvas of artists of the Neapolitan school and a wooden choir that dates from the beginning of the 20th century. The remains of the Greek walls, below the roadbed, on which the Romans built their walls lasting till Medieval times. The monastery of St. Francis (14th century) and the church of St. Francis (16th century). The Museo Correale di Terranova, housed in an 18th century palace, contains valuable collections of paintings and ceramics - Italian and non (1 7th and 18th century) and also archeological finds and a section devoted to marquetry of Sorrento. The Museobottega delta Tarsialignea contains a collection of objects and of inlaid pieces of furniture typical of Sorrento.