Massa Lubrense is an ideal place for a great holiday, more than 100 km of marked trails in the country side, country landscape, famous for its cuisine (7 restaurants in the top 20 of Campania, one of the best 3 in Italy), a coastline almost 20 miles long in the middle of the Protected Marine Area of Punta Campanella. The shores of Massa Lubrense are the closest to Capri (only 3 miles away) and you can reach Positano (13 miles), Amalfi (25 miles), Pompeii (21 miles), Ercolano (28 miles), Vesuvius (30 miles) and obviously Sorrento (3 miles) in less than one hour.
Punta Campanella is a protected area stretching for 30km and includes several municipalities from Massa Lubrense to Vico Equense. The Marine Reserve unfolds along the coast of the Sorrento Peninsula, taking in lush headland and rocky inlets. Places to visit include the Bay of Ieranto, with its tiny islets and Li Galli, where mermaids tried to entice Ulysses with their songs. This is a great place for diving and for discovering the natural marine habitat of the "land of the mermaids".
Nature and Surroundings:
Marina della Lobra is situated at the heart of the Natural Marine Reserve of Punta Campanella in the Massa Lubrense town. It is a place of extraordinary beauty distinguished by a strech of limestone rocks interspersed with a couple of small beaches. For lovers of underwater diving we suggest renting a small boat or an book an axcursion to explore the caves along the coastlineand dive intoits crystalline water. This place is 8 km far from Sorrento and can be reached by car or by the Sita and Circumvesuviana Buses.
Marina di Puolo or Baia di Puolo This Sorrento's fishing village is very small and has just 200 inhabitants whose main activity is fishing or tourism. This area is rich of restaurant, pizzeria and bars with a huge choice of seafood plates, typical pizzas at reallyu reasonable prices. There are many private lidos but also free beaches where entrance is free but you can also buy sunbeds and umbrella. The car park is 200 metres far from the beach and this distance can only be covered by walk on a steap road. This place can be reached by car drivng in direction of Massa Lubrense and turning on the right once the banner "Baia di puolo" is visible. Baia di puoolo can be reached also from the centre of Sorrento taking the orange bus circumvesuviana or the blue bus Sita.
Marina del Cantone or Nerano Beach The bay of Nerano in Massa Lubrense is one of the most beautiful scenery in Sorrento. The beach conformation is characterized by pebbles, that keeps the water really clear making of this beach the preferred destination for divers and snorkelers in Sorrento peninsula. This beach is rich of private lidos with restaurant where you will enjoy the typical dishes of the place realized with fresh ingredients and tradition. You can reach Nerano from Sorrento by car or bus in just 30 minutes.
Marina Reserve Punta Campanella The establishment of Punta Campanella Marine Protected Area has the aim to preserve one of the most beautiful and rich stretches of Italian coast from a naturalistic point of view, both for the terrestrial and for the underwater environment. The 30 Km of coasts of Peninsula Sorrentina are a succession of green promontories and welcoming inlets: the Baia di Ieranto is famous, since it offers to the visitor a unique landscape.
The reserve comprises the coastline that extends for 30 Km from Punta del Capo (Gulf of Naples) to Punta Germano (Gulf of Salerno) and includes a charming succession of grottoes, inlets and bays. A few miles off the coast, small reefs scattered here and there (Vervece, Vetara, Isca and Li Galli) are corners of paradise for scuba divers. Punta Campanella natural reserve abounds with Mediterranean maquis trees and flowers. The greenery of the coast extends even underwater, with multicoloured seaweed and a rich marine fauna. The calcareous nature of the rocks has favoured the formation of grottos and caverns of great interest!
To Visit:
Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Lobra (1528): outside, a bell tower topped by a small egg-shaped enamelled cupola; inside: coffered ceiling , XVIII majolicated floor; in the chapel on the right of the presbytery, a wooden Crucifix (XVIII c.) and a panel showing Madonna con San Giovanni (Mary with St John) from the XVI century.
Cathedral of Santa Maria delle Grazie (1512)
Convent of the Franciscans (XVII c.): inside, a small rustic cloister.
Events:
Holy Week Rites: Good Friday procession in costume.
Lemon Festival:, first 10 days in July, celebrating the "top of the pops" in citrus fruit, the 'yellow gold' of the Costiera.
"Festival of the Assunta": (Marina della Lobra) August 6th -16th
(Mozzarella Cheese) In Schiazzano, August 10th - 12th.
Useful Information:
Massa Lubrense is popularly known as the legendary Land of Sirens (from which it derives the toponym of “Sirenusion”), who lived along the coast and with their haunting and beautiful voices lured sailors onto the rocks. According to the legend, Ulysses passed for Ieranto Bay, and there he built the temple of the goddess Athena. Ieranto Bay or Baia di Ieranto, in Massa Lubrense, is one of the rare Italian place inhabited from the very ancient times, and the only intact creek of the Amalfi Coast.
Its name derives from the Longobard word "mansa", which defined a territorial unit, with the adjective "lubrense" related to the Church of Madonna della Lobra, so named because it was built upon a pre-existing pagan temple (delubrum, in Latin)
Massa Lubrense is the climatic centre of the Sorrento Peninsula. It has a triangular form and borders at north-east with Sorrento, Gulf of Salerno on the left and Gulf of Naples on the right. The gulfs are separated by the peak of Punta Campanella (historically called “Athenaeum promontory”) that faces the island of Capri. This gorgeous strip offers fantastic occasions for excursions both overland and underwater.
In 1990, 11 pedestrian routes were found, miles away from noise, chaos, urban agglomerates, through lemon and olive trees. The classical walk is a triangle with its points in Termini, Monte San Costanzo and Punta Campanella. Depending on the weather, the temperature and other factors you can do the walk in one direction or the other; whichever way it is a just spectacular!.
Sorrento accommodation - Massa Lubrense/Sant'Agata accommodation