What to do during your free time in Rome & Sorrento?
Here are some suggestions:
ROME
Trevi Fountain
Tradition has it that throwing a coin over your left shoulder into the fountain guarantees a swift return to the eternal city. Anita Ekberg's dip in it was immortalized in Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita', and Italian actor Toto even sold it to an American, passing himself off as its owner. Designed by Nicola Salvi for Pope Clemente XII, it was completed in the second half of the 1700s. The statues in the centre represent Neptune supported by Tritons on either side while rococo-style Poli Palace provides the perfect backdrop.
Pantheon
Commissioned by Marcus Agrippa, restored by Domitian, and subsequently rebuilt by Hadrian (who added the dome) before being turned into a church in the early 7th century by Pope Boniface IV. The building's sole source of light is the opening at the dome's apex (the oculus); according to popular legend, this formed the base for the bronze pinecone that is now in the Vatican's 'Pigna' courtyard, where it is used as a fountain. Many famous Italians are buried in the Pantheon, including Renaissance painter Raphael and King Vittorio Emanuele I.
Trastevere
This area of Rome was originally built to be a city port where storehouses held goods at the time of Augustus and continued to do so until the end of the 19th-century. Trastevere then became a downmarket residential quarter and has now developed into a very desirable quarter. The heart of the district is Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere with its church, a 17th-century palazzo and a fountain, having been designed by architects such as Bernini, Fontana and Della Porta. There are still some well-conserved medieval houses.
SORRENTO
Shopping
Going around for shopping certainly is one of the most amusing and curious activities. The variety of articles and shops is so wide that you have too much to choose from. The center of Sorrento shopping is Via S. Cesareo, the beating heart of the town.
Museum Correale di Terranova
The Correale Museum is located on what was once land belonging to the territory called Cape of Cervo or Xeres, given to Zottola Correale in 1428 by Queen Joanna II of Angevin. The small building Correale built there was restructured in 1700 and in the early 1900s, with Pompeo and Alfredo Correale became a sort of cultural coterie.