Sorrento
Town on the Bay of Naples, Campania, Italy. Its centre is the Piazza Tasso.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither Here Nor There | Bill Bryson | setting | Love at first sight: the town where Bryson “wanted to live here, starting now”. |
Neither Here Nor There — Bill Bryson (1991)
Source: Readwise highlight
I fell in love with Sorrento in an instant.
- Role: setting
- In the book: Chapter 14. After the chaos of Rome’s station and the squalor around Naples Centrale, Bryson takes the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento: “a compact town tumbling down from the station to the Bay of Naples”. At its heart is the Piazza Tasso, lined with outdoor cafés, with cool, aromatic alleyways leading off it. He takes a room at the Hotel Eden, window-shops along the Corso Italia, and sits at Tonino’s snack bar on the square watching middle-aged English tourists.
- Why it matters: Sorrento is the book’s closest thing to an ideal place. Its compactness and calm are the point, set against Naples just up the line. From here he takes the ferry to Capri.
- Not pinned separately: Piazza Tasso (no standard-source coordinate found).