Limoncello in Sorrento

A Southern Italian Tetrology Love Affair.

For our first full day in the South, my girl pal and I decided to make the most of the amazing sun and heat, so what did we do? Go to the beach of course! I had asked a couple of friends of mine who lived in/around Naples where would be the best place to go. Their response? Sorrento. We hopped onto the Circumvesuviana (a train that stops at all the little towns along the coast from Naples to Sorrento) and headed to Sorrento. We hadn’t done must research before heading there as we were so tired from the 10.30-hour bus ride and slept, so we were a little lost in trying to search for a beach. We headed to an information point and we were told that there aren’t any “real” beaches, in fact, they are more like little decks over sea water. We didn’t let that stop us. We were going to jump into that Italian sea water, beach or no beach.

Just getting out of the train station, you could tell that already, Sorrento was a special place. Naples and the surrounding towns made me feel as if I had traveled to another corner of the Earth. Everything was so vibrant and bright. Sorrento was just crazy. With constant smells of flowers and greenery everywhere, you could tell this place was unique. Once we had made our way through the town centre and had reached the beach, we saw what the lady at the tourist office meant about there not being “real” beaches. My friend and I are used to the beaches in Spain but we quickly found out there is no comparison here. We asked a welcoming man if we could go onto the deck. He told us we had to pay. PAY? Yes. Pay. I had heard that this was common in Italy but I didn’t think I’d ever fall into that tourist trap. With 10 euros less in our pockets, we sat on the deck chairs and soaked up the Italian sun.

After 4 hours of sunbathing and siestas my friend and I decided to see what this charming little town had to offer. We walked through the little alleyways that led off from the main town square and started asking ourselves why there were so many lemons and limoncello around the town….turns out that limoncello is actually from this part of Italy! So, like good students, we bought ourselves a little, handpainted bottle of limoncello.