I woke up this morning thinking of the fireflies we saw in Sorrento. I was so caught by surprise by them. I have never seen them anywhere else in Italy and never heard anyone mention them. Also, this was the third trip to Sorrento and the first time I'd seen them. Could be just a fact of life to many of you, but in California they don't exist and the first sight of them is incredibly magical!

I too saw my first fireflies in Italy.
I had never seen them in Calif or Arizona and I was fascinated. Tried to videotape them but they did not show up on the tape. I can't remember the town we were in but it was on the Med coast and a short distance from Florence.

You probably didn;t see them before in Sorrento because the firelfy season is very short - only a couple of weeks I think - or at least it seemed that way in my childhood. How odd you don't have them on the West Coast - they're very common here in the suburbs/countryside.

I saw them on a dark road in Tuscany one magical night. It was almost like a dream.

We have them in KY but the kids call them "lightning bugs". The kids try to catch them on summer nights and put them in jars with air holes in the lids. When you grow up with something like that you tend not to notice after awhile - I'll have to pay attention this summer to see how long and when the season runs.

We had lightning bugs when I was a kid in Ohio. In Haiti they are green lights. In Ohio they are yellowish lights. They were the only bugs our kids actually liked when they were little.

What color are the Sorrento fireflies (the lights, not the bugs)?

We saw them every night for an hour or so in an agriturismo just outside of Greve in Chianti. It was early June. My brother-in-law and I are both originally from the east coast and saw fireflies all the time in the summers there, but my husband and my sister-in-law grew up in the west and this was their first time to see them.

The fireflies appeared like something out of A Midsummer Night's Dream--moving slowly and low to the gound, weaving in and out of the vineyards that surrounded our agriturismo. Magical IS the word, Grasshopper, especially since it had been years since I had seen them. What nostalgia for my childhood.

Does anyone know the Italian name for them? I asked our host at the time, but didn't write the word down and can't remember. Something...luce?

Thanks for reminding me of those wonderful nights!

Yes, fireflies growing up in NC were lightening bugs..
I look forward to seeing them here too, nothing so summery and pretty as sitting out on a summer evening, looking at the little lights in the dark~