SORRENTO, a city of Italy, in the province of Naples, on the north side of the peninsula that separates the Bay of Naples from the Bay of Salerno, about 1 ½ miles to the east of Capo di Sorrento, crowned by the ruins of a temple of Neptune. Sorrento contains only a few unimportant remains of the magnificent buildings which made it in the time of Augustus a finer city than Naples; and its present prosperity depends mainly on the reputation it enjoys as a summer watering-place, with a delightful and healthy climate, and situated amid picturesque coast scenery. The chief local industry is the inlaying of wood. In ancient times the Surrentine wines had a great repute. The population was 4254 in 1861 and 6089 ir 1881.

Surrentum was of very ancient origin, but it does not appear frequently in history. A famous temple of Minerva stood on the Promontorium Surrentinum (now Punta della Campanella). In 1558 the corsair Pialy attacked the town and carried off 2000 prisoners. Statius celebrated the delights of the Surrentine villa owned by his friend Pollius Felix; it was at Sorrento that Bernardo Tasso wrote his Amadigi ; and Torquato Tasso was born in the town in 1544.