Christmas in Sorrento

Want to experience the Christmas spirit somewhere this December? Try a new direction and head south to Sorrento.

This classic summer resort is at its best just before Christmas.

You can’t wrap it up in shiny paper or squeeze it under the thick branches of a Christmas tree, but experiencing the Christmas spirit is what millions of people strive to achieve every year. It is, of course, a short escape. Just a few days somewhere just before New Year’s Eve, to buy traditional gifts, admire the lights and take in a fantastic festive atmosphere. But surely, nothing is better for getting you into the proper Christmas spirit.

The usual destination is a beautiful northern European city with a wonderful Christmas market. All that gingerbread and steaming wine! All those cute hand-carved wooden objects! A session of Christmas carols, and an ice skating rink.

Some travelers venture to Lapland, with its deep snow and Santa kitsch. Others go to New York, with its legendary warehouses and cornucopian shop windows.

But surprisingly few of us realize how beautiful southern Italy can be at Christmastime.

Especially in Campania, a region that excels at so many things, for which Christmas is everything: gorgeous ornaments, gastronomic stupor and a long tradition of respecting family traditions.

In December in Italy, the lights are ablaze, the shops are filled with glittering, jaw-dropping gifts, and the streets are filled with festive people – genetically wired to wander the city all evening, no matter what the temperature. Not that the temperature is ever too cold.

Cold, clear days with cheerful sunshine are the norm in December in much of the country.
Some of Italy’s most beloved places are probably at their most enchanting during the Christmas period, and certainly live up to the pomp of summer.

Christmas in Sorrento

Sorrento is a perfect example. This unspoiled tourist town on a rocky cliff overlooking the magnificent Bay of Naples is crowded with foreign visitors all summer. They don’t come for the beaches (Sorrento has no notable beaches).

They don’t come for the monuments or museums (Sorrento is too much fun to boast many of these). They come for the sheer pleasure of wandering Sorrento’s breathtaking alleys and piazzas. They come for the lively cafes and bars, the unusual night promenade (the stroll down the town’s main street).

In December all these pleasures are completely inappropriate, but the town is full of locals rather than foreign tourists.

In December, Sorrento’s open-air market groans under the weight of a sumptuous food source or rises glittering with shiny gift boxes of delicious panettoni.

In the town’s cute little churches and you’ll find charming nativity scene sets – elaborately crafted with antique figurines, a great tradition in the Campania region. Outside, gentle lights sparkle on palm tree trunks and reach out to illuminate every branch. Excited Sorrentines mill around, and the whole town hums with color and life.

On Sorrento’s shopping streets, even in winter, the color of summer is everywhere – in the ubiquitous bright bottles of limoncello, the cascades of bright dried chili peppers, and the massive citrus trees that sparkled in the December cool. Sorrento is practically overwhelmed by its oranges and lemons – a little so embarrassingly pungent that you can’t help but watch them forlornly as they grieve at you.

And the wealth isn’t just limited to the goods in the shops.

Sorrento is an extremely popular wedding venue for young people from nearby Naples. On any given Saturday in December, romantic love is likely to reach its nuptial peak here.

You’ll see a crowd of welcomers throwing rice at a bride and her new groom, only to see them pose again in the most picturesque corners of the city for photographs and video. The Italian style of wedding portraiture is quite daring, so expect plenty of public displays and lewd eye contact between the newlyweds. No cold winter chills here!
Of course, you’ll want to buy some sparkly gifts to appease the people back home. The classic souvenir is limoncello – Sorrento’s sweet lemon liqueur. For bottles in unusual shapes, visit the many specialty shops on Via Cesareo and Via Fuoro.

The other traditional Sorrento gift is anything decorated with inlaid wood or intarsia – a craft that has been practiced here for centuries. Think beautiful hand-crafted chess sets, intricate little boxes, trays, pictures and so on.

The best places in Sorrento to buy – or simply admire – inlays are the workshops of Salvatore Gargiulo (Via Fuoro 33), Franc and Guglielmo Cuomo (Piazza Tasso 32) and of course Gargiulo & Jannuzzi (Viale Enrico Caruso 1).

Wandering through Sorrento’s narrow, shop-lined streets is a delight, winter and summer alike. But in December cascades of tiny light bulbs illuminate each shop, and large, bright, illuminated stars huddle against the saddled sky. As the daylight fades to the blue of dusk, these stars seem to grow larger and brighter. As darkness descends, so does the air of excitement.

This is southern Italy after all, and siesta hours are inviolate – regardless of the season. All shops and traders will be open for business until 8pm. And then, in stages, the passeggiata – the celebration of the night – will begin. On a Saturday night in December, the streets of Sorrento are packed until the wee hours.

The entire population of the city is out, their numbers swelled by Neapolitans visiting the city for the weekend. Every age group is here – children, teenagers, seniors, middle-aged. All strolling, chatting, buzzing with excitement about nothing in particular. They stop at cafes and ice cream shops, say hello to friends and family, and then wander off again. It’s ridiculously convivial and points to one of the great blessings of a benign climate: you can stroll the streets for fun on most nights of the year.

Strolling through your hometown en masse every night naturally fosters a tremendous sense of community. At Christmas time, Sorrento’s sense of community is at its peak.

On a summer night, the town would be filled with happy and welcome foreign visitors. But in the dead of winter, the city secretly saves itself.

Everyone you see is a Sorrentino or a Neapolitan, behaving with all the verve and style that suggests, dressed up and flirting outrageously. To see them at their best, check out Sorrento’s finest cafés and bars: l’Insolito (Corso Italia 38e), il Fauno (Piazza Tasso 13-15) with its nightclub next door.

Everywhere you wander in Sorrento, you can’t help but be dazzled by exuberant street lights. In Piazza Tasso, a conical Christmas tree is a blaze of white dots. All along the central streets, the outlines of buildings – doors, windows, ledges and roofs – are carefully outlined in strips of lights. Against the black sky, they turn Sorrento into a cartoon, all its lines and curves drawn in electric white. It’s fitting, that cartoonish feel.

Because Sorrento is a place of fantasy – all about pleasure and recreation. It is a beautiful star whose only purpose is to shine and make people smile.

And in the meantime at Christmas, Sorrento shines in its brightest time of the year.