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,