Sorrento

A charming town situated on a rocky elevation over the Bay of Naples, with a view over Naples, Vesuvius, Ischia and Capri, Sorrento was a real mecca for artists, who stayed here for shorter or longer periods. Ibsen finished his dramatic poem Peer Gynt here. Edvard Grieg stayed at the Tramontano hotel here in 1869 and 1884.

The Nocturne, Op. 54 No. 4 splendidly expresses the composer’s feelings on a mellow evening above the Bay of Naples with the outline of Vesuvius against a starry sky. Grieg set those impressions in music during the cold, rainy summer of 1891 in Troldhaugen, longing for the summer nights in Sorrento.