“You don’t have to do it”: it’s a word that Salvatore Aceto tells us often when telling us about visitors Lemons grow on the Amalfi Coast which he and his family maintained for six generations: hectares of Lemon Sfusato Amalfi going up 400 meters above the sea of Amalfi; from here, placed among the bicentenary plants, the coast can be controlled from above.
Salvatore has often said this to those who don’t understand A landscape like this, so beautiful but so fragile, can’t be approached on a plane. You can’t expect not to fight, you can’t destroy the bees (produce 800kg of honey every year here), nor, if it rains, the soil. Because it is small, this will erase the information of a place, and then you may not have any information that connects you with a unique part of a territory.
And to say that Salvatore and his family are familiar to tourists and travelers. More: their farm lives in love with them, the tourists. Yes, because after establishing himself as «the largest lemon producer on the entire coast after the Second World War», thanks on the one hand to the often absurd rule of major division organizedamong other things often penalize products that deteriorate quickly, and on the other hand to air changesometimes the economic sustainability of the agricultural sector alone is at risk.
Amalfi Lemon Flavor
Such as the Aceto family opens up tourism with tours and experiencesthe Amalfi Lemon Flavorwhich intends to show a part of the Amalfi story, told among the lemon trees and in the areas of a museum with agricultural tools and pictures that show how, in among others, to women – «here they are called formichelle. » – always engaged in this very tiring farm. Francis often states this: Even today, baskets of lemons weighing tens of kilograms are carried up and down steep slopes and small stairs.and built here on the macere, the steps that the farmers have made in this area for centuries; So, it is not surprising that today’s work is not easy.
«My father, on the other hand, at 88 years old still gets up at 5 in the morning and goes to work.»: an effort to not leave the Aceto family because «lemons are all for us, we keep them until they disappear». A waste of money, of course. Fortunately, tourism has paid off for 700 quintals of lemons every year, which have been transformed into other products, including the famous limoncello, which cannot be carried in the family’s pockets. “Today, the tourism sector represents 65% of our income”, he explained to us with the precision expected from a former accountant like him. “This is also thanks to the five-star hotels”, which provide this kind of experience to their guests. including a private cooking lesson, hosted by Salvatore’s wife, and lunch (five and a half hours with the saying “if you don’t cook you don’t eat”), the price goes up. 300 euros per person (25, however, for the type with regular travel).
Bellevue Syrene and Borgo Santandrea, hotels on the beach that support the area
As we know, there is no shortage of good hotels on the Amalfi Coast and some of these are almost illegal to try to bring their guests to that area.. This is the case of Bellevue Syrene of Sorrento and Borgo Santandrea in Amalfi, overlooking their valleys with beautiful views and private access to the sea (in the second case a private beach, not provided here) and two branches of Relais & Chateauxa company that promotes the country close to its DNA. Hotels that open up their accommodations and don’t confine their guests (property) to aseptic and soulless compartments: that’s it. Bellevue Syrene you can taste different products from the beach, with Annamaria Apreda’s dairy productswhile a Borgo Santandreaa must visit for those who love design, especially from the fifties and sixties, you can see firsthand the mastery of different local producers – as one of the owners, explains Maurizio Orlacchio – “made the authentic works of the provider. things, using old techniques.”