For the uninitiated, the Italian coast can be a confusing jumble of red-cheeked smiles, loud greetings and boisterous music. Sorrento is the beginner’s guide to anyone interested in a summer by the Italian Riviera. From afar, the village resembles a collection of blocks of crayon arranged in neat rows atop cliffs, following the contours of the flat tops. To the south lies countryside, to the north the ruins of Pompeii, the jeweled Amalfi coast to the east and off the waters of the west emerges the island of Capri. Mount Vesuvius lies quiet as a cone of pitch black in the distance but the remnants of its wrath are still seen in historical ruins found along the journey to Pompeii.

At the town museum, you might discover Sorrento’s past identities as a Greek town with no name and then as the Roman Sorrentum before finally settling as the Italian Sorrento we know. Through it all, it has attracted visitors from far flung regions and a dozen different tongues. Its narrow streets sandwiched between squat pastel buildings, their balconies almost touching, are drenched in perpetual summer idling. Vibrant ceramics, delicate lacework and baffling intarsio crafted by hand are laid out for the tourists thronging Piazza Tasso. Step into the house of God at the Cathedral of Sorrento for a taste of religious antiquity along the main thoroughfare of the Corso Italia, the dramatic depiction of the crucifixion arresting anyone’s attention. Displaying Italy in a bite-size manner, Sorrento has awed generations of tourists who return year after year for their dose of summer paradise.