Newspaper Article

Travel: Italy: Serenely Sorrento: High above the bay of Naples, Mike Kiely samples the elegant tranquillity of the Excelsior Vittoria

Kiely, Mike

2003

Overview

The coast road south out of Sorrento leads on to some of the other glittering cast of the Costa Amalfitana: Positano, Amalfi and Ravello. The swell of the waves visible from my partner's position in the passenger seat reflects the delicate state of our stomachs as the tiny hatchback negotiates the seemingly never-ending succession of bends that slow our progress. By half an hour after midday, we're still several kilometres from Positano, but the dome of Santa Maria dell' Assunta and the town's pastel-coloured houses, framed by the mountains and rising steeply away from the sea, are visible in the distance. Then, around 1pm, we're descending the narrow streets and in to the welcoming embrace of one of the numerous parking consortiums that do brisk business finding a temporary home for your four wheels. The onset of evening sees us make our way out of the hotel and down the path flanked by orange and lemon trees and into the bustle of Piazza Tasso. The statue of Sant' Antonio Abate, encircled only hours before by a succession of tourist buses, stands contemplating the square that is now ringed by restaurants and bars servicing the northern Europeans that are drawn to Sorrento in their thousands at this time of year. We head south into the old town, in search of a quiet meal. The area is a maze of shops offering both fresh and ceramic lemons of all shapes and sizes, attesting to the region's abundance of citrus fruit. A great deal of the annual crop goes in to the manufacture of limoncello liqueur, bottles of which can be yours for however many euros the individual shopkeeper believes he can safely draw from the sea of tourist bumbags populating the area at all times of the day. If you've never tasted limoncello, don't. Of course, some may believe it to be the height of Amalfitana sophistication, something to be savoured on nights at home with the neighbours as you regale them with stories of how you will soon be setting up home in southern Italy. To me, it tastes like nothing less than an over-enthusiastic reduction of a Bacardi Breezer. Believe me, it'll take more than one bottle of mineral water to remove its cloying consistency from your palate.

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited
• Subject: Hotels & motels / Sorrento Italy / Tourism