The Cloister of San Francesco is the quietest place in central Sorrento, and one of the few where you can still hear silence even in August. A square fourteenth-century courtyard beside the church of the same name, eight minutes' walk from the B&B.
What makes it unusual
The arches are not all the same, and that is the interesting part. Two sides of the cloister have interlaced arches on slender tufa piers, an Arab-Norman motif that is rare in Campania; the other two are round arches on columns, from a later period. Some elements are reused, taken from earlier classical buildings.
The result is a courtyard built at different moments that hangs together better than many cloisters designed all at once. At its centre, dense bougainvillea and wisteria that in summer cover much of the portico.
What to know before you go
- Entry is free during daylight hours.
- It takes ten minutes to see. This is a pause, not an excursion.
- The cloister is a sought-after civil wedding venue: you may find it occupied by a ceremony, particularly on Saturdays in spring and summer. If it is closed for an event, come back an hour later.
- In summer it hosts photography exhibitions and open-air chamber concerts in the evening. It is worth checking the programme: playing under those arches changes the sound.
Getting there from the B&B
Eight minutes on foot. Cross Piazza Tasso, take via Santa Maria delle Grazie and continue towards the sea: the cloister is at the start of via San Francesco, beside the church and the entrance to the Villa Comunale gardens.
Our advice
Do not go on its own: it belongs to a walk that is the best thing you can do in Sorrento without spending anything.
The cloister, then the Villa Comunale gardens next door — where the terrace opens onto the bay with Vesuvius opposite — and from there, if your legs are willing, the stairway down to Marina Grande. That is forty minutes of walking with three of the best views in town.
Go in the hour before sunset. The light comes in low under the portico, the cloister empties, and the Villa Comunale next door becomes the spot where half of Sorrento goes to watch the sun drop behind the peninsula.
Corso Italia