Sorrento Geography

The Sorrentine Peninsula is a limestone ridge running west into the Tyrrhenian Sea, and Sorrento sits on its northern flank on a shelf of volcanic tufa laid down by eruptions in the bay. The shelf ends in a vertical cliff, so the town has sea frontage but no shoreline; access to the water is by lift, stair or ramp.

Behind the town the Lattari mountains climb to nearly 1,450 metres at Monte Faito, close enough that the weather changes between the seafront and the ridge. Deep ravines cut the tufa, and one of them runs into the middle of the town.

Across the water Vesuvius is directly visible about twenty kilometres away. To the west, past the tip of the peninsula, Capri lies roughly five kilometres offshore across a channel called the Bocca Piccola. The south side of the ridge, over the mountains, is the Amalfi Coast — near in distance and slow to reach.