DOI Kapitel:
Chapter VIII: Sorrento
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59000#0333
Sorrento
the little streets are full of foreigners, buying tortoise-
shell and useless silk scarves, or bargaining with absurd
ignorance over the prices of inlaid wooden goods, so
closely imitated by painted designs that strangers are
often deceived, considering themselves very clever in
getting for a few francs some object the only value of
which is its imitation of the original. This work is
best seen in the Art School of Sorrento, supervised by
an old Garibaldian soldier and artist. There the work
can be traced through its highly artistic unfinish, when
it closely resembles a Pompeian fresco, to its polished
and popular perfection, when all its artistic quality has
been varnished away.
The time to see the place in its true glory is in the
summer, and during the delightful Italian bathing season,
which often lasts into October. There are vivid de-
scriptions of summer life here in the novels of Mathilde
Serao. Then the tourist season is over, and the villas
round the coast and up in the hills are occupied by
Neapolitan families. The uncertain climate, the torrents
of rain, and the gusty winds, are gone ; days of exquisite
warmth and starlit nights follow each other all through
the summer months, and on into the autumn days, when
the roads are strewn with fallen olives, the yellow
dandelion springs from every rock, and the ruddy
clusters of aloe blossoms are bright against the sky.
Go into the market-place in the morning, and you will
find a spectacle that cannot be surpassed for pictur-
esque charm. Part of this piazza is built over the
great gorge beginning in the hills and descending
155
the little streets are full of foreigners, buying tortoise-
shell and useless silk scarves, or bargaining with absurd
ignorance over the prices of inlaid wooden goods, so
closely imitated by painted designs that strangers are
often deceived, considering themselves very clever in
getting for a few francs some object the only value of
which is its imitation of the original. This work is
best seen in the Art School of Sorrento, supervised by
an old Garibaldian soldier and artist. There the work
can be traced through its highly artistic unfinish, when
it closely resembles a Pompeian fresco, to its polished
and popular perfection, when all its artistic quality has
been varnished away.
The time to see the place in its true glory is in the
summer, and during the delightful Italian bathing season,
which often lasts into October. There are vivid de-
scriptions of summer life here in the novels of Mathilde
Serao. Then the tourist season is over, and the villas
round the coast and up in the hills are occupied by
Neapolitan families. The uncertain climate, the torrents
of rain, and the gusty winds, are gone ; days of exquisite
warmth and starlit nights follow each other all through
the summer months, and on into the autumn days, when
the roads are strewn with fallen olives, the yellow
dandelion springs from every rock, and the ruddy
clusters of aloe blossoms are bright against the sky.
Go into the market-place in the morning, and you will
find a spectacle that cannot be surpassed for pictur-
esque charm. Part of this piazza is built over the
great gorge beginning in the hills and descending
155