Lush, verdant and kaleidoscopic with colour, the Amalfi coast is one of Italy’s most beautiful sights – a gleaming diamond in a nation full of treasures. Alongside neighbouring seaside settlements like Positano, Ravello and Sorrento, Amalfi is a huge tourist destination, attracting thousands of visitors every year. UNESCO declared the coastal town as a World Heritage Site in 1997, and it remains an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Mention Amalfi to anyone with a hint of a food brain, and only one thing comes to mind – lemons. Known as ‘sfusato Amalfitano’ in Italy – sfusato is Italian for ‘spindle’, presumably an old reference to the lemons’ elongated shape – Amalfi lemons are an iconic symbol of Italy’s bountiful produce and have been coveted for over a thousand years for their sweet flavour and powerful citrus aroma. Head to ancient Roman settlements like Pompeii and Herculaneum, and you’ll see lemons – suspiciously spindly-looking ones – depicted in Roman villa mosaics. It seems likely that lemons first arrived in Italy by way of Middle Eastern merchants, but these would have been more like the lemons we know in the UK – small and sour. By the turn of the eleventh century, farmers had managed to cross these lemons with local bitter oranges, and were cultivating what we know today as Amalfi lemons. Amalfi was a powerful seafaring republic around this time, with a large network of trade routes weaving across the Mediterranean – not only were these unique lemons a much-desired trade item, they were also popular among sailors as a way to fight off scurvy during long voyages.