Listen to “Savoring Sorrento – a food lovers guide to Italy's city by the sea” on Spreaker.
Are you excited to visit Sorrento on your trip to Italy? Make sure you spend some time exploring this famous seaside town. Many visitors head off to nearby Amalfi Coast or Capri and miss out on the many charms of beautiful Sorrento. Our guest Lee Trapani from Gourmet Girls Italy food tours tells us why you should make time to explore her home town a little longer.
Show notes
Lee Trapani's story is very romantic thanks to a chance encounter as a teenager and the charming setting of beautiful Sorrento. The gateway to many Italian adventures, people often skip through the city quickly and that's a real shame. In a conversation full of laughs and good humor, Lee shares with us her passion for life on the Sorrentine peninsula and its amazing food culture.
Local food and wine, is something Lee is extremely passionate about. You just want to sit down and try all the delicious dishes and experience the conviviality and joy that she so obviously brings to the table. Whether it's an oozing mozzarella straight from the dairy or local fresh anchovies plucked from the Bay of Naples, it's very clear Lee has her finger on the pulse of the tastiest dishes in her city.
Sorrento is also a great place to shop for unique souvenirs and simply soak up la dolce vita. By the end of this episode you'll be planning an extended stop in this city to eat, drink and be merry with Lee and the Gourmet Girls crew.
Use code UntoldItaly2020 for 5% off your food tour with Gourmet Girls in Sorrento > click here for available tours
click here to subscribe to podcast updates
What you'll learn in this episode
- How the people of Sorrento are managing during lockdown
- The best time to visit Sorrento and what to expect when you get there
- Where to go for the best fish dishes in Sorrento
- All about the unique and welcoming Southern Italian culture
- Dishes to seek out when in Sorrento
- Why you'll never be able to eat mozzarella from anywhere else after you've tried the local variety
- Lee's favorite day trip from Sorrento
- What to expect on a Gourmet Girls food tour
About our guest – Lee Trapani
Originally from Scotland, Lee Trapani has lived in Italy and made Sorrento her home for over 25 years. After a long career in tourism, she and business partner Vanessa Brown-Giglio founded Gourmet Girls Italy – a food tour company dedicated to authentic food experiences in Sorrento.
When she's not enjoying the delights of Sorrento's food and wine culture with visitors from around the world, Lee spends time with her family and tries to think of ways to use up huge bags of oranges and zucchini. She's a keen cook who has learnt many recipes by watching her mother-in-law and soaking up the traditions of the Sorrentine peninsula.
You can find Lee and Vanessa, the Gourmet Girls, on these channels:
- Gourmet Girls Italy website
Places mentioned in the show
- Towns: Sorrento, Positano, Naples
- Islands: Capri, Ischia
- Marina Grande – the place to go for fresh fish dishes and lovely atmosphere
- Piazza Tasso – the main square of Sorrento
- Vicoletti – the small and charming laneways of Sorrento
- Vesuvius – the famous volcano you can see in the distance
Food and wine of the Campania region mentioned in the show
- Mozzarella – cheese made with buffalo and cows milk
- Burrata – cheese made with mozzarella and cream
- Ciliegina and treccia – local types of mozzarella cheese – cherry and plaited
- Limoncello – lemon liqueur famous in Sorrento
- Avellino wine
- Melanzane parmigiana – eggplant parmesan
- Pizza – no introduction needed
- Cold cuts / salami – cold meats made with pork
- Calamari fritte – fried calamari
- Pizza fritta – fried pizza pockets from nearby Naples
- Fiori di zucchine fritte – stuffed and fried zucchini flowers
Resources from Untold Italy
- Best day trips from Sorrento – 10 exciting options for seeing the area and discover Where to stay in Sorrento
- How to get from Naples to Sorrento and from Rome to Sorrento – all the options for your transfer
- Highlights of the Amalfi Coast – podcast episode on the best things to do along the stunning coastline
- Positano city guide – for your best ever day trip from Sorrento
- How to plan a trip to Italy – our article that takes you step by step through trip planning so you can avoid our mistakes
- Italy Travel Planning – our FREE online community where you can ask questions and get inspiration for planning your trip
- Travel shop where you’ll find items mentioned in the show
NEED SOME HELP planning your Italy trip?
We are here for you. If you are planning the classic Italy trip, have a milestone event coming up and you want to celebrate at a villa in Tuscany or want to find the best stops for your Puglia road trip, we can help.
There is no shortage of Italy travel advice online. The problem is finding the right advice for your trip. Our Italy travel experts have helped hundreds of travelers go from overwhelmed to booked, with a plan they are excited about. Whether you have a loose idea or a half-built itinerary that needs a second opinion, we can help. Get in touch today to get your Italy trip in motion.
Transcript
Prefer to read along as you listen? Below is a full transcript of our episode conversation. Unfortunately it does not pick up our lovely Australian and Scottish accents however!
Intro (00:05):
Ciao and ben venuti to Untold Italy. I'm Josie and I'm Katy and we're here to help you plan your trip to Italy. Between us, we have many years of travel experience and we want to help you uncover your own as yet untold stories and adventures in Italy. Each episode you'll hear practical advice, tips, and ideas to help you plan your own trips to the magical land of history, stunning landscapes, and a whole lot of pasta. We'll have interviews from experts and focus on local destinations and frequently asked questions about travel in Italy. Thanks for listening and make sure to subscribe to our show. Now let's get started on your regular dose of Bella Italia
Lee Trapani (00:51):
Ciao everyone. We have a very special treat for you this episode. Today we're taking you on a virtual trip to beautiful Sorrento in the south of Italy. I'm talking to Lee Trapani, co-owner with her friend, Vanessa Brown-Giglio of food tour company Gourmet Girls Italy. Lee's here to tell us all about the incredible city she calls home. Now, as you will be able to tell by her gorgeous accent, Lee is originally from Scotland, but she has lived in Sorrento for years and years. Her story is one for all your romantics, but I'll let her tell you all about that. Many people rush through Sorrento on their way to the Amalfi coast or Capri or they use the city as a base for excursions to those places as well as Pompeii and Naples. But here's the thing, Sorrento has plenty of charms of its own and I've asked Lee to share some of those with us today. I can't wait to hear all of these insider tips for visiting Sorrento. So without further ado, let's start the conversation.
Katy (01:49):
Ciao Lee and a big welcome to the Untold Italy podcast. Thank you so much for joining us.
Lee Trapani (01:55):
Thank you so much for having us, Katy. We're really, really excited.
Katy (02:00):
That's great. Well, I've given you a quick introduction earlier, but we would love to hear how a woman with such a beautiful Scottish accent came to be living in Sorrento
Lee Trapani (02:11):
Okay. So my story, I know that it makes even myself laugh. So when I was 13, I was here in Sorrento with my parents on holiday and we were staying at a hotel with a pool that is directly next door to where my mother-in-law still lives. So every evening, right about five o'clock, my now husband, Marco and his two brothers used to sneak from the garden of their house across to the pool. I know. Crazy. And so I met him sneaking into the pool basically. I know it's cheese, on cheese, on cheese. So I met him and we have a 15 year old daughter, Alessandra, now. So now putting myself in that position as the mother and daughter; every time Alessandra gets ready to go for a pizza, her dad, you can see the vein and his neck pulsating.
Lee Trapani (03:28):
So that's how we met. We stayed in touch which was not the easiest considering I did not speak any Italian then and his English was pretty grim from school. So by the way, Marco is three and a half years older than me in case anybody's thinking that I met a 45 year old Italian