Sorrento

The central square, named for the poet Torquato Tasso, who was born in Sorrento. A deep gorge passes beneath it; the square was made by bridging and covering it over. In the evening carriages and crowds fill it.

Look over a railing beside Piazza Tasso and an abandoned flour mill sits deep in a narrow gorge, smothered in fern and moss. Once the square sealed the gorge, damp built up, and the mill is said to have shut in the 1940s. There is no way down.

The fishermen's harbour under the cliffs, painted wooden boats pulled up on the shingle. From town it is about 10 minutes down through an old gate by steps and ramps. Waterside kitchens grill fresh fish, and the uphill walk after dinner is hard work.

On a headland west of town, a natural pool joins the sea through a narrow rock arch, ringed by the ruins of a Roman villa. From the bus stop it is a 20-minute path through olive groves, and with no kiosk you carry your own water.

Capri is just over thirty minutes away by boat, and lying flat in a rowing boat you slip through an opening in the island's northwest cliffs into glowing blue water. Any slight swell blocks the mouth and closes it for the day; start out early in the morning.

A 14th-century cloister whose arches vary from column to column, showing it was assembled from different periods. Vines shade the arches, and the town hall lets it out for weddings, so at weekends you often meet a bride and groom.

A small park on the cliff edge, with Vesuvius straight ahead across the bay from the railing. A lift in the park drops directly to the Marina Piccola harbour below for the boats, sparing you the stairs. The lift charges a fare.

A museum of Sorrento marquetry, pictures assembled from thin pieces of wood, housed in an 18th-century palazzo. The scenes on boxes, tables and frames are made with nothing but the woods' own colours. Workshops in town can still be watched at the craft.

The headland where the Sorrento peninsula ends in the west, with Capri looking close enough to touch across the strait. A path leads down from the village of Termini in about an hour to an old watchtower at the end. With no shade, skip midday.

A Roman town entombed whole in scalding volcanic debris when Vesuvius erupted in 79, smaller than Pompeii but with wooden doors and upper floors better kept. The Circumvesuviana line runs there from Sorrento; its old, crowded trains call for minding your bags.

An 18th-century mansion left by the local Correale brothers, now a museum of Neapolitan paintings and Capodimonte porcelain room after room. Follow the garden path to its end and a clifftop lookout opens over the Bay of Naples and Vesuvius.

The church of St Antoninus, Sorrento's patron, whose remains lie in the crypt beneath the altar. A stair off the nave descends to it. On his feast day, 14 February, a procession carries his statue through town.

A 14th-century nobles' meeting place off an old-town alley: an open arcaded loggia under a dome painted in the 18th century. A workers' mutual aid society is now based here, its members gathering under the dome. Nobody minds you looking in from the lane.

A cove near the peninsula's end, reached only on foot, an hour down a path from Nerano; Italy's FAI trust keeps it unbuilt. You can see the seabed through the water, and Capri's rocks float opposite. No shops: carry water.

From Anacapri, Capri's upper village, a single-seat chairlift rises to Monte Solaro, the island's highest point. You float over vineyards and gardens; the summit shows the whole island and the Sorrento peninsula. Strong wind halts it.

Three rock stacks off Capri's southeast coast, the middle one pierced by a tunnel wide enough for boats. Round-island cruises steer right through, the highlight of the trip. From land, view them from the railings of the Gardens of Augustus.

The house Swedish doctor Axel Munthe built over an old chapel site on the Anacapri cliffs, made famous by his book The Story of San Michele. Roman sculpture he collected fills the rooms; at the garden's far end an Egyptian sphinx watches the sea.