 Victorian poet Robert Browning sojourned in the area and mentions the countryside of Piano and other localities of the Surrentine peninsula in the poem "The Englishman in Italy".In the nineteenth century, Piano di Sorrento's economy was based mainly on fishing, agriculture and shipbuilding activities.At the beginning of the twentieth century, Piano di Sorrento encountered socio-economic mutation which will - given by the progressive crisis of agriculture, shipbuilding and by the growing role of trade and tourism.