3 Best Sights in Sorrento and the Sorrentine Peninsula, Italy

Just off the southeast corner of Piazza Tasso, this palazzo was built in the 14th century in Catalan style but transformed into a Rococo-era showstopper, thanks to its exquisite Esedra Maiolicata (Majolica Courtyard, 1772). This was one of the many examples of majolica and faienceware created in this region, a highlight of Campanian craftsmen. (The most notable example is the Chiostro delle Clarisse at Naples's Santa Chiara.) In 1610 the palazzo became the Ritiro di Santa Maria della Pietà and today remains private, but you can view the courtyard beyond the vestryway. Its back wall—a trompe l'oeil architectural fantasia—is entirely rendered in majolica tile. As you leave the palazzo, note the unusual arched windows on the palace facade, a grace note also seen a few doors away at Palazzo Veniero (No. 14), a 13th-century structure with a Byzantine-Arab influence.

Sant'Agnello's two most famous estates sit side by side. In the early 19th century, the Jesuit Cocumella monastery was transformed into a hotel, welcoming the rich and famous. Next door is the Parco dei Principi, a hotel built by Gio Ponti in 1962 surrounded by a botanical park laid out in 1792 by the Count of Siracusa, a cousin to the Bourbons. Traversed by a diminutive Bridge of Love, this was a favorite spot for Désireé, Napoléon's first amour, who came here often. Shaded by horticultural rarities, this park leads to the count's Villa di Poggio Siracusa, a Rococo-style iced birthday cake of a house perched over the bay. Green thumbs and other circumspect visitors can stroll through the romantic park, now part of the Hotel Parco dei Principi. It's notable for Ponti's alluring nautical design motifs and features, including a pool straight out of a David Hockey painting. 

Enchanting showpiece of the Largo Dominova—the little square that is the heart of Sorrento's historic quarter—the Sedile Dominova is a picturesque open loggia with expansive arches, balustrades, and a green-and-yellow-tile cupola, originally constructed in the 16th century. The open-air structure is frescoed with 18th-century trompe-l'oeil columns and the family coats of arms, which once belonged to the sedile (seat), the town council where nobles met to discuss civic problems as early as the Angevin period. Today Sorrentines still like to congregate around the umbrella-topped tables near the tiny square.