Marina Grande is Sorrento's fishermen's village: a row of low houses on the water, boats hauled up on the shingle, nets spread out and a dozen restaurants along the quay. It sits below the cliff, fifteen minutes' walk from the B&B, and it looks nothing like the town centre you have just left.
First things first: this is not Capri's Marina Grande
It is the most common mix-up. Marina Grande on Capri is the harbour where the ferries dock on the island. Marina Grande in Sorrento is this village, on the mainland, and no ferries come here.
Nor is it Marina Piccola, which is Sorrento's port, where the hydrofoils and ferries leave from, on the other side of the cliff. If you book a table here and then look for the restaurant near the ferry berths, you are in the wrong place.
What it actually is
It was Sorrento's independent fishing village, with its own identity and even its own dialect. It still keeps a different rhythm from the centre: mornings are for working the boats, the afternoon is almost deserted, and in the evening it fills with people coming down for dinner.
You enter through a Greek gate, an arch in the ancient walls at the bottom of the descent, and from there the street narrows down to the shingle beach.
Eating
It is why most people come down here. The quayside restaurants work with the local catch and serve on terraces at the water's edge.
A few honest pointers:
- Prices are not village-trattoria prices: this is Sorrento, on the water, and you pay for the position too.
- Always ask what the fish of the day is and ask to see it. That is normal here, not rude.
- On summer evenings you need to book, especially for the front-row tables on the water.
- At lunch, out of season, there is room everywhere and the light over the bay is superb.
Getting there from the B&B
Fifteen minutes on foot, almost all of it downhill. Take via Marina Grande and follow it down to the Greek gate.
The catch is the return: the climb back is steep, and on a full stomach in the evening it tells. There are two alternatives — the stairway up to the Villa Comunale, shorter but harder, and the town bus linking the marina to Piazza Tasso, comfortable and frequent until late.
Our advice
Come down in the late afternoon, when the sun is low and catches the house fronts side-on: that is when the village looks best and the tables are not yet laid.
Eat late, after sunset, and walk back up with the lights of the coast on. If you have been walking all day, take the bus: there is nothing heroic about finishing the evening with two hundred steps.
Marina Grande