WEBVTT

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
On Italy Amalfi Coast

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
there's a food found 
nowhere else on Earth.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Caring for it requires fearlessness,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
breathtaking agility,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and a deep connection to the land.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This is a young man's trade

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but it's done almost entirely by old men,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and I come here to meet 
one of the greatest.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Gigino just turned 83,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
he's spent his whole life
tending a very special kind of lemon.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Gigino just turned 83,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
he's spent his whole life
tending a very special kind of lemon

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
here on the hillsides of Amalfi.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Gigino and his son Salvatore
have invited me

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to harvest the fable Amalfi Coast lemon,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
sfusato amalfitano,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a variety that is celebrated
for its sweetness and aroma.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But first, café!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Salute!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
With a twist of lemon, of course.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
That's really good!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I'm ready to go now. Let's go!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now you're ready.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The name, sfusato, comes 
from the lemon taper end,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
like a spindle or "fuso", in Italian.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Only sfusato grown along the 20 miles 
coastal strip between Vietri and Positano

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
can legally be sold
as Amalfi Coast lemons.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This is the preferred habitat
of the sfusato amalfitano,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and attempts to commercially grow it
outside of Italy have failed.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Gigino often works in the most
precarious place possible:

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
atop the mountainside pergolas
that support the trees.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
This breathtaking aerial act
has earned Gigino and his cohort

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
a nickname: the Flying Farmers.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's easy to drive along the coast

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and think the cascading lemon terraces
are entirely ornamental,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
they are just postcard perfect.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But that's what this coast does to people,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it gives us delusion on grandeur,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that all of this is it's here purely
to fulfill our fantasy of paradise.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But in reality, 
the lemons play a vital role,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not only on the livelihood
of farmers like Gigino,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but in the very survival
of the Amalfi Coast,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
literally, the survival.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The roots of these trees are anchoring
the soil to this sheer coastline.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Now, the farmers are aging,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and there's not exactly a line of people
clamoring to take up this work.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
As more farms have been abandoned,
the mudslides have increased.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Gigino's farmland includes
an ancient terrace grove

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that overlooks the heart 
of Amalfi and the sea.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Up here feels worlds away

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but it's staringly close
to the bustling streetlife below

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
where you can hear 
children playing as Gigino works.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's terrifying to think of
what would happen

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
if these terraces crumble.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It was only recently that
Gigino's eldest son Sal

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
quit his cushy accounting job


99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to become his father's apprentice.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He knew that if he didn't act now

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
then a legacy of over two centuries
and five generations would die with him.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He teaches me day by day and I'm learning.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's difficult because

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it's difficult to learn
80 years of experience.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Gigino tends two seasons 
worth of lemons at the same time.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The one he'll harvest this year
from February to September,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and the babies that will be
next year's crop.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Gigino's lemons are organic

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
not because he tries to conform
to any modern day standard,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but rather the opposite,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
because he's farming the way
his family has farmed for generations.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The spring is such 
a special time to be here.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The trees are unclogged from the netting

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that protects the fruit 
against wind and hail.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The trees bloom perfuming the air
and luring bees to pollinate.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The Aceto keeps his own hives
and havests the honey too.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The fertilized flowers grow into fruits
which start as green as limes.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
A third of Gigino's lemons 
are used to make limoncello

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in their own small factory.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The rest goes to ice cream
and other limoncello factories,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and a few to fresh markets.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
These are the real deal shears.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Ok.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
All right.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
We want leaves on these.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
The branches and the leaves
also indicate that is really fresh,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that is coming straight from the farm.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I got this one.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's not for me...

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He'll do it.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I can get this one, ughh --
it's heavy enough.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
- Salute!
- Salute!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I've seen a lot of tough farm work

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
but I really can't think of 
a more challenging terrain than this.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Heavy loads have to be hauled 
up and down narrow craggy steps

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
from terrace to terrace --
to terrace.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But Gigino also claims a unique advantage.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He's got one of the most technologically 
advanced poling systems on the coast.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I'm serious -- this little cable car!

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Cable car aside,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
watching Gigino's farm 
is stepping back in time 200 years.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He crafts each pergola himself
from the chestnut trees in his forests,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
then he uses pliable willow branches

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to tie the pergola 
to the limbs of the lemon trees

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
to lift them up to the sun
which sweetens the fruit.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Preparing the willow ties
is an ancient practice.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Watching him do this fills me
with a deep sense of privilege,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it's like, I'm seeing 
a tradition so fragile

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that if I blink, it may cease to exist.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
It's Sunday

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and three generations of Acetos
are gathered under the pergola for lunch.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
There's pasta, sausages and flank steak

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and of course, lemon cake.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
In his heyday, Amalfi was an incredible,
powerful maritime republic,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and a gateway to 
the continent for Arab traders.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They are the ones 
who first brought citrus to this coast

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
in the tenth century.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Ever since, wealthy visitors 
from near and far,