Sorrento is the most well known destination of most tourists. Presumably already inhabited by the Phoenicians, it was first a Greek and then a Roman colony even though they often they rebelled against Rome, without every being destroyed.
In imperial times, it became the privileged residence of the Roman nobility, as evidenced by the numerous villas along the coast.
Sorrento also suffered incursions of the Goths, Lombards and Byzantines, until it was transformed into the Duchy in the ninth century before being conquered by the Normans in 1133. To defend themselves against the attacks of the Turkish solders in the mid sixteenth century, the city built defensive following an ancient Roman circuit.
In 1799, Sorrento became part of the Neapolitan Republic, but even then, began to take on the character of a popular holiday resort which still characterises Sorrento today.
