Ninety minutes from Melbourne, Sorrento mirrors its Italian namesake, anchored by the reimagined Hotel Sorrento – where heritage, dining and seaside glamour draw the summer crowd.
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It was the Campanian city of Sorrento that inspired philosopher Frederik Nietzsche to write about passion, vitality, and a free spirit, some 150 years ago. The Italian cliffside city is the birthplace of Limoncello, and sits on the Campanian coastline nestled between Amalfi to the south and Naples to the north.
Sixteen thousand kilometres away on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula lies another glitzy summer haven, named to emulate the Italian seaside resort favoured by Nietzsche. A 90-minute drive from Melbourne, Australia’s Sorrento is a lime and sandstone-hued oasis – a distinct departure from the citrus, azure, and crimson of Campania.
Antipodean Sorrento’s jewel is the Hotel Sorrento, perched adjacent to the white sand of the resort town’s front beach. It too was conceived 150 years ago. Owned and operated by the Pitt family for the last 45 years, the hotel recently completed a 5-year renovation, said to have cost $20 million. The soothing limestone face of the heritage-listed building now gives way to a 4-star hotel sporting 58 rooms and suites, a wellness spa, 25-metre pool, conference facilities, two upscale restaurants, and five distinct bars.
The Hotel Sorrento is an institution for well-heeled Melbournians, a respite from the summer sun and a magnet for holiday-makers keen to catch up for a drink at the beach. More sophisticated than the nearby Portsea Hotel and elevated from the Conti around the corner, familiar faces from the deep-pocketed social set abound, as do the Bentleys and sports cars in the car park.
Not only treasured for its bars, culinary offerings, and lodgings, Hotel Sorrento’s gentle, earthy rooftop palette serves as a spectacular coastal backdrop for renowned DJs dropping beats on the sun-kissed 20-something crowd.
Siblings Myles, Bridget, and Marcus – the third generation of the Pitt family to take the reins – recently picked up the 2025 Australian Hotels Association award for Victorian Hotel and Accommodation of the Year. To be acknowledged for opulence while also maintaining the neighbourly friendliness of a local watering hole is no small feat, but it has been a potential roadblock that the Pitts have surmounted.
A high-end culinary Pitt stop
The dining room is awash with beige, but the food is anything but. A warm rosemary salted and whipped butter-adorned focaccia is the first thing to greet our palates. Before that, the executive chef visits our table after hearing that our 14-year-old dining companion, Eloise, is gluten intolerant. He assures us the calamari and fries are cooked in a different fryer, a rarity at most restaurants, Eloise’s mum Michelle, notes when he leaves the table.
The diligence continues, with multiple waiters stopping by to ask if we are enjoying the starter. We are drinking a Quelay Balnarring Pinot Noir, local to these parts and described as brooding.
It is the house red that I am pairing with a prawn, tomato, dill, and caper house-made fettuccine, made in the sizzling open kitchen near where we are sitting. Six chefs, all in black, zip around behind copper food-warming lights, next to a constantly churning woodfire stove.
The restaurant is packed on this summer Tuesday, and it is a melting pot of ages and dynamics – groups of friends gathered around tables, families breaking bread together, couples lunching, and older folks laughing.
Original limestone gives the room a light, airy feel, and the Art Deco cornices add decadence to the ceiling. An aerial shot of the Sorrento Pier is affixed to the wall, bringing a sense of place from the external to the internal.
Between our table and the buzzing kitchen is a group of four golfers who just finished a round and are now looking for a seat and a feed. They sport Titleist caps, shirts tucked into belted tan shorts, and, impossibly, grass-stain-free Nikes, while standing in front of a limestone-surrounded fireplace. Their preppy-tailored clothes scream Sorrento, and they fit every part of the bill as they stride to their outdoor table overlooking Port Phillip Bay’s turquoise waters.
Our main courses arrive, and the calamari is accompanied by aioli and a strawberry gremolata, a delicious and unique touch. The rocket salad is citrusy with nectarine, parmesan and mustard dressing, a fresh respite from the toasty day. The fish and chips are crispy-fried, sea-salt sprinkled, and delicately melt in your mouth. Most importantly, they are 11-year-old Lincoln-approved, who gives me a thumbs up and a big smile.
Before leaving, I stopped by a table of 30 people who had earlier filed into the dining room one after the other and were seated in an indoor atrium. We had taken bets at our table of four about what had brought them together and wanted to resolve our piqued curiosity before departure.
It was an annual reunion we discovered that takes place each summer down at the beach. The men know each other from attending an all-boys private school in Melbourne decades ago. These days, most of them have holiday homes on the prized Peninsula, and what better way to spend an afternoon, they tell me, than in the Pitts’ flashy, yet gracious, new playground.
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