Nerano · Sorrento peninsula

Quattro Passi

A three-Michelin-star Mellino-family table on the Sorrento peninsula at Nerano — opened by Antonio and Rita as a pizzeria in 1983, awarded its first star in 2000, the second in…

The verdict

A three-Michelin-star table on the Sorrento peninsula opened by Antonio and Rita Mellino in 1983 — first as the village pizzeria of Nerano, then a great Mediterranean restaurant. The first star arrived in 2000, the second in 2011, the third in November 2023, when their son Fabrizio (born 1991) was given the kitchen at thirty-two. Three generations of the Mellino family run the house — Antonio still on the pass, Fabrizio behind it, Raffaele on the floor.

From the editors · Vedere House

The particulars

Setting: Via Amerigo Vespucci 13, 80061 Nerano (Massa Lubrense, Naples) — the village above Marina del Cantone, on the southern arm of the Sorrento peninsula, looking across the bay to the Galli isles
House: A glass-walled pergola hung over the cliff, painted bougainvillea-white and decorated with the colour-glazed Easter eggs that have become the family's emblem; a stone wine cellar cut into the volcanic rock below; the boutique Relais La Veglia for the night
Family: Antonio and Rita Mellino — opened the pizzeria in 1983 — with their sons Fabrizio (executive chef, b. Sant'Agnello 1991) and Raffaele (sommelier and dining-room patron)
Kitchen: Antonio Mellino and his son Fabrizio Mellino, executive chef
Stars: Three Michelin stars — first in 2000, second in 2011, third in November 2023 (the southernmost three-star kitchen in Italy)
Menu: Seasonal tasting menu (Equinozio d'Autunno €290 per person, whole-table) · à la carte with the house signatures — Linguine alla Nerano, Sea Bass with wood sorrel and Amalfi lemon, Laticauda lamb in beeswax
Service: Lunch 12.30–14.15 · Dinner 19.45–22.00 · Monday–Tuesday and Thursday–Sunday · closed Wednesday
To stay: Relais La Veglia — six rooms above the restaurant, kept by the family
Best for: A long Sorrento weekend — Naples airport an hour, Positano twenty minutes by water, the Galli isles and Capri across the bay

Nerano is a village above Marina del Cantone, on the southern arm of the Sorrento peninsula, looking across the bay to the Galli isles and Capri beyond. Antonio Mellino had been working as a cook on the cruise ships in his twenties; in 1983 he and his wife Rita came back to the village and opened a small pizzeria. They called it Quattro Passi — four short steps, the way it sat back from the road. The pizzeria turned into a restaurant; the first Michelin star arrived in 2000, the second in 2011, and in November 2023 the kitchen was given its third — at thirty-two, Fabrizio Mellino became the southernmost three-star chef in Italy.

“
The avant-garde is not found in amazement or insurrection, but in a deep knowledge of the territory and its interpreters.
”

Fabrizio Mellino

The kitchen is still the family's. Antonio remains on the pass behind his sons; Rita kept the front of house in the early years and the bougainvillea on the door. Fabrizio, born in Sant'Agnello in 1991, runs the brigade as executive chef; his brother Raffaele keeps the dining room and the volcanic-stone wine cellar that runs beneath the building. The à la carte holds the family's signatures — Linguine alla Nerano (zucchini, basil, the long-aged Provolone del Monaco of the peninsula), sea bass with wood sorrel and Amalfi lemon, laticauda lamb matured in beeswax — and the seasonal tasting menu (the autumn equinox is €290 a person, whole-table) takes the kitchen through whatever the headland and the boats brought in that morning.

Service runs from 12.30 to 14.15 at lunch and from 19.45 in the evening, Monday–Tuesday and Thursday–Sunday. Six rooms wait above the restaurant in the family's Relais La Veglia — the right way, in the end, to take the long Sorrento midday: a swim down at Marina del Cantone, the climb back up the hill, three hours at the table over the bay, and the short walk upstairs to bed.

Signature moments

A panel of small jewel-toned amuses — bite-sized pastries glazed red, yellow, green and violet, set on tiles in front of the open Bay of Nerano with the scrub-clad headland of Punta Campanella receding in the haze.

A pizzeria turned three stars

Antonio Mellino gave up the cruise-ship galleys in his thirties and came back to the village above Marina del Cantone with his wife Rita; in 1983 they opened a small pizzeria — *quattro passi*, four short steps, after the way it sat from the road. The pizzeria became a restaurant; the restaurant a great Mediterranean kitchen. The first Michelin star arrived in 2000, the second in 2011 — long enough for the boys to grow up in the dining room and behind the pass.

Antonio Mellino in chef's whites with his wife Rita standing under the bougainvillea arch at the entrance to Quattro Passi — both smiling, the heavy red-pink blossom blurred behind them in the midday sun.

The Mellino family

The kitchen has stayed inside the family. Antonio is still on the pass; Rita kept the front of house in the early years and the bougainvillea on the door. Their elder son Fabrizio, born in Sant'Agnello in 1991, has been at the stoves since his teens — at thirty-two, in November 2023, the Michelin Italia 2024 guide gave the kitchen its third star, making him the southernmost three-star chef in Italy and one of the youngest ever. His brother Raffaele runs the dining room and the wine cellar.

Fabrizio Mellino in chef's whites at the pass, plating a glossy chocolate tart with a small gold leaf insignia — the rest of the brigade at work in the open kitchen behind him under bright extractor light.

Memory turned through technique

The signatures are Sorrento, served as the family always served them — *Linguine alla Nerano*, in homage to the village dish of zucchini, basil and Provolone del Monaco; sea bass with wood sorrel and Amalfi lemon; laticauda lamb matured in beeswax. Fabrizio's line, written into the new tasting menus, is that *the avant-garde is not found in amazement or insurrection, but in a deep knowledge of the territory and its interpreters* — and the menu does, season after season, return to the same coastline.

Inside the house

A long oval white plate at Quattro Passi — three crisped Mediterranean prawns laid in a curve over a hand-painted blue fish motif, with a small tangle of borage flowers and herb leaves at one end.

The wine cellar at Quattro Passi — a barrel-vaulted tunnel of rough volcanic stone with a brick floor and timber racks of bottles down both sides, a single lit lantern overhead, an old wooden press at the far end.

Three Mellinos at the entrance to Quattro Passi — Fabrizio in a blue apron, his father Antonio in chef's whites and Raffaele in a dark tailored jacket — standing under a Michelin 2022 plaque and a row of colour-glazed ceramic eggs hung along the white wall.

A small white scallop-edged bowl set inside a deep round plate — three plump Tyrrhenian mussels and small pale cubes in a clear shellfish broth lined with a single arc of dark vinegar, photographed from above against a bright white ground.

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