Skip Sorrento: Vico Equense, Metre-Long Pizza and Gulf Views

Vico Equense: the secret of the Sorrento Peninsula

Sorrento is the gateway to the Amalfi Coast and Capri, a beautiful city that has nonetheless paid the price of its fame with gridlocked streets, European-capital prices and a historic centre increasingly geared towards international tourism. A few kilometres along the coast, Vico Equense is the Campanians' answer for those who want the same beauty without the surcharge of celebrity.

The home of metre-long pizza

Vico Equense is famous throughout Campania for a brilliant invention: the pizza a metro. Created in the 1960s by Don Luigi Giordano at the historic Pizzeria Gigino Università della Pizza, it is a rectangular pizza served by the metre, tall and soft, topped in creative ways and cut into portions. It is not classic Neapolitan pizza but an entirely local evolution that is worth the journey.

- Original pizza a metro: at Gigino, the pizza a metro with escarole, olives and capers is a timeless classic. But also try the versions with porcini mushrooms, gorgonzola and walnuts.

- Honest prices: a dinner with pizza a metro, fried starters and beer costs less than half of an equivalent meal in Sorrento.

- Local atmosphere: Vico's pizza restaurants are full of Neapolitan and Campanian families, not organised tour groups.

A surprising territory

Vico Equense has a unique geography: it extends from sea level to over a thousand metres in altitude on the Monti Lattari, offering landscapes that range from rocky coastline to beech forests within just a few kilometres.

The historic centre is perched on a headland dropping sheer to the sea, with the church of the Annunziata overlooking a vertiginous drop. The borgo's lanes preserve noble palaces and artisan workshops. Do not miss the Museo Mineralogico Campano, housed in the medieval castle, with a collection of minerals among the most important in southern Italy.

Hidden beaches

Vico Equense does not have Sorrento's wide beaches, but it conceals coves reachable only on foot or by boat that are among the finest on the peninsula. The Baia di Scrajo is a thermal spot where hot sulphurous springs mix with the sea. The Spiaggia del Bikini is a pebble cove nestled between high cliffs. Marina di Equa, the fishermen's harbour, has a small beach with a rock known as Petra Herculis from local legend.

The hillside hamlets

The hillside hamlets of Vico Equense are a world apart. Monte Faito is reached by a scenic cable car from Castellammare and offers paths through beech forests and views over the gulf. Arola and Moiano are rural villages where Provolone del Monaco DOP and Sorrento walnuts are produced. A walk among the lemon terraces reveals the most authentic side of the Sorrento Peninsula.

Where to eat (beyond pizza)

Beyond the celebrated pizza a metro, Vico Equense has a rich gastronomic tradition. Ristorante Torre del Saracino by Gennaro Esposito, two Michelin stars overlooking the bay at Marina di Equa, is one of the finest restaurants in southern Italy. For a more everyday experience, Trattoria Da Gigino (not to be confused with the Università della Pizza) serves traditional seafood dishes from the Sorrentine tradition. The caseifici (dairies) along the road to Agerola produce fiordilatte and Provolone del Monaco that can be bought directly.

How to get there and when to go

Vico Equense is on the Circumvesuviana railway line Naples–Sorrento, forty minutes from the centre of Naples. By car, the motorway exit is at Castellammare di Stabia. The ideal months are April–June and September–October: mild weather, clear sea and a lively but unhurried borgo. In summer it is a popular destination for Campanians, especially at weekends, but it remains far more manageable than Sorrento.