Visit the Museo Bottega della Tarsia Lignea to discover an art, craft and history museum that showcases Sorrento artisanship, displaying a collection of elaborately inlaid wooden furniture. Each item is covered with decorative pieces of veneer, a technique called marquetry which Sorrento is well known for. Pick up insights into the development of this distinctive style of inlay work by exploring four floors of exhibits inside an 18th-century city center palace.
Start your visit on the first floor which presents documents, paintings, photos and advertising posters that focus on Sorrento’s citrus trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. Read explanatory panels written in both Italian and English.
Go up to the second floor for exhibits that highlight more of Sorrento’s past. See a model of when it was a walled city and study 18th and 19th-century paintings and prints of the coastal destination and its inhabitants. Another highlight of this floor is bedroom furniture made for the wife of a cousin of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas II. Survey exhibits that cover marquetry finishing techniques and look at tools that were used to create inlaid pieces.
Tour the next floor for furniture and objects by Francesco Grandi, Arturo Guidi and students of the Sorrento Scuola d'Arte, which was established in 1886.
Among the highlights of the fourth floor are inlaid furniture pieces by such Sorrento masters as Giuseppe Gargiulo and Antonio Damora. Other standout features of the museum include the frescoed vaulted ceilings of two rooms on the third floor and traces of ancient wall frescoes on the fourth floor.
The museum is open daily and charges for admission. There are discounts for children between the ages of 6 and 17 and adults over the age of 65. People with disabilities and their carers are entitled to free admission.
Find the Museo Bottega della Tarsia Lignea in the center of Sorrento, less than a 10-minute walk west of the main square. For a fee you can park in garages located in nearby streets and there are limited metered street parking options.
