Overview
Behind Sorrento's Piazza Tasso, you'll find an enchanting pocket of abandoned industry being gently reclaimed by nature. As you look down from the walkway beside Hotel Antiche Mura, the world drops away and you're gazing into a steep-sided gorge bursting with ferns, trees and climbing vines, and some mysterious-looking architecture.
This is the Valley of the Mills — a 16th-century warehouse and 19th-century mill building overrun by lush, wild greenery. There's been a mill on this site since the tenth century, but after the Piazza was built in 1866, the valley was sealed off from the sea, resulting in a humid microclimate where plant life flourishes along with a number of species of owls, bats and insects.
Following controversial 'restoration' in 2019, some of the greenery has been removed and the walls and roof repaired, but the mosses and vines are creeping back, returning the hollow-eyed brick structures to their former, otherworldly glory.
Top Image: Ukususha, Bottom Image: Jef Wodniack