Places to see in Sorrento

The protected marine area at the tip of the peninsula, where the bay of Naples meets the bay of Salerno with Capri directly opposite. Walked to on old mule tracks through olive terraces, and swum from if you can get down to the water. A half-day walk and much emptier than anywhere on the coast road.

A patrician house museum of Neapolitan painting, inlaid furniture and porcelain, with a garden running out to a terrace above the sea. Rarely busy. The best hour in Sorrento that is not spent on a boat or a bus, and the obvious wet-afternoon answer.

Sorrento's centre and the hinge of the whole town — the road down to the marina drops off one side, the old lanes run off the other, and everyone passes through it in the evening. Cafés on the square charge for the position. The point of Sorrento is that it is a base, and this is where the base begins.