When Life Gives You Lemons, You Must Be in Sorrento
Day 19, 2024 Ultimate Mediterranean
Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024; Naples, Italy.
Naples is one of those ports with a lot of fun options. We dock right in the city, and as long as you are careful about avoiding pickpockets, you can walk around on your own. Of course, you should eat pizza here in its birthplace.
Touring the ruins of nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum are must-dos. If you have time, a drive along the Amalfi Coast is wonderful in the off season with less traffic. It and the Isle of Capri are closer to Sorrento, if you are fortunate enough to have a port call there, as I did a number of years ago.
I so enjoyed our call to Sorrento then that I decided to return to this town on the southern end of the bay of Naples. Like many towns along and near the Amalfi Coast, it clings to cliffs with winding switchbacks leading to small harbors. Holland America’s “Shopping in Sorrento” tour looked like the best option to travel the hour from the Naples dock, leaving me with time to wander, shop and sketch.
Unfortunately, the clear skies in Naples didn’t stretch to Sorrento, so the overly damp air didn’t make sketching a good idea. I took lots of photos with plans to sketch from them later.
But first, our guide led us to a factory, as she called it, for woodworking. I didn’t see any actual working going on – just several display rooms with beautifully inlaid furniture, boxes, trays and other items. An employee gave a brief talk about the process. In exchange for our time, we were invited to use their restrooms and given a coupon for a gelato at a nearby restaurant.
As I’ve written before, my rule for shopping is to limit purchases to something I would take on a cruise. That pretty much means jewelry or clothes. Certainly not furniture or housewares, although they can be lovely to look at.
I set off to the town center with its Christmas tree in a traffic circle. On one side you look down on the iconic switchback that leads to the small harbor. If I look through my photos from 2011, I’m sure I took the same photo.
Following a random street, I passed by other Christmas decorations, restaurants that weren’t yet open for lunch and narrow lanes with stairways leading down the cliff. One overlook would have been a good place to sit and sketch, but the benches were still wet from an earlier rain shower. More photos for future consideration.
Our guide had directed us to two parallel shopping streets – one with designer shops and a narrower pedestrian pathway through the “old city.” It was lined with tourist shops selling everything lemon.
It is no surprise that the lemon is a symbol of Sorrento. Lemons grown in groves along the hillsides and cliffs around Sorrento have a particular thick and aromatic peel that is perfect for infusing liquor, resulting in Sorrento’s famous limoncello.
The small storefronts along the cobblestoned path sell limoncello in decorative bottles of every size. They also sell lemon-infused oil, lemon cookies (with and without lemon crème), lemon candy and lemon chocolates. Yellow lemons adorn fabrics made into placemats, aprons and clothes.
Interspersed among the lemon-themed shops are many selling leather goods (including lemon-shaped purses) and painted ceramics.
Once I realized that I wouldn’t be sketching in the damp air or buying limoncello (my sister may still have the bottle I bought her 13 years ago), I opted for this region’s other famous product – pizza. I could only eat about half the pie, and while the crust was just as flavorful as the sauce, I preferred the crisp edge to the soggy center. The house red wine washed it down well.
And just like that, it was time to meet our guide and bus for the return to Naples. I guess to justify the “shopping” moniker for the tour, we stopped at a cameo “factory,” which again was a large showroom next to a single craftsman carving away at a seashell. The work is beautiful, but not so much to my taste in jewelry.
What was to my taste was the bag of Maltesers I discovered in the cruise terminal shop. I guess it met the criteria of something I would pack for a cruise.
The last time you were in Naples did you discover the street of shops displaying prescepi? (I’m pretty sure I spelled that right, but…) Every possible thing you could use to set up a Biblical village in your house to wow your friends and family. I’m talking way beyond manager scenes–whole towns with craftsmen and women working at their trades, every animal, food and plant possible and many of them automated. Diane and I spent a whole morning just gawking.
Great story Jo, which has us looking forward to the Legendary Mediterranean in 2026 – assuming it goes to some of the ports you have covered recently. Since a stay in the Luberon in 2012 when our host gave me his recipe for Limoncello, I have made Landmark (our condo) AOC Limoncello – it has to be made lemons grown on our property. You can try it when you visit – Tuscan Lemon Drop anyone?
I love reading your posts. Your pictures are amazing. Can’t believe we’re on the same cruise. Your descriptions are so much better than mine
One great discovery I made in Rome was the limoncello gelato!
Hi Jo
Loveeeeeee the Amalfi coast in Italy. The views are stupendous. The shops, Piazza in town, quaint and lovely good beaches too. If you get a chance, take the bus up to.Ravenna where we walked through two beautiful nature parks with the sculpted Italian gardens and statues.
The sign on the fence: “ti amo ti scrivo”
Means“I love you, I’ll write you.”
Really enjoying your wonderful blog and am fascinated each time you mention the Maltesers, I think I’ll stop in World Market to see if they have them. I’ll probably find some other candy we’ve purchased on our travels, I tell be so much fun.