The Lemon Trail🍋

Another great day and couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather. We hiked the Lemon Trail which is Maiori to Minori or vice versa. We are staying in Maiori (highly recommend!) which is larger then Minori but both right on the water. The lemons they grow here are different than the ones in Sorrento - who knew? We hiked up a ton of stairs and then walked along the mountain sometimes up and sometimes a bit down but always great views of the water and the terraces where the lemons grow.

There are a number of places you can stop along the way for a lemon tasting and we had an appointment at one of them. A family business for 5 generations and still many of the original trees! We learned a lot about the lemons specific to that area and what makes them so special. They were originally planted there to maintain the mountain and so really conservation of the area. They can be very large and since they use no preservatives you can consume the entire fruit - even the peel. (Don’t try this at home folks! Not the same lemons!) We tasted lemon salad which is slices of lemon salted with olive oil. Delicious! Lemonade with no sugar so very tart. Then after going into the orchard we had lemon marmalade and lemon cello- from tart to sweet.

Lemon trees are very fragile so they build pagodas over them to protect them. The bitter orange tree is very sturdy so to preserve the trees for generations they graft the orange tree to the lemon tree. This tree decided to produce lemons and oranges. Nothing wrong with that in my book. We can learn from nature. Just do you🩷I have a new appreciation for lemons but have always loved the flavor.

I like capers but never really thought about where they came from. They are difficult to grow and mainly grow wild out of places like stone walls. Actually such a pretty plant.

We continue our hike to Minori. The final descent was another 400 steps - no problem.

This is such a perfect climate for so many great fruits and vegetables. They look so beautiful and smell wonderful.

One more stop before lunch to visit the Villa Romana which was discovered in the early 1930’s when they were excavating to build a building. A large villa built in the 1st century AD. More to see than the one we visited in Capri. Interesting to tour it and see the ingenuity of people from so long ago. Still some evidence of the original paintings on the walls.

Off for another fantastic lunch at la Botte. First coarse fantastic grilled vegetables. The walls were covered in beautiful watercolors all painted by the owner.

Main course fusilli pasta in a light seafood sauce with clams and mussels. Best mussels I’ve ever had. This platter was for 4 of us but we couldn’t come close to finishing it. And I would like to say dessert was offered and for the first time maybe ever I passed. Yes it’s the truth! But it all looked fantastic. I’m saving room for gelato later. Such restraint for me.

A unique shrine along the walk.

We had a couple of options to get back to Maiori but Keeley and I and Louise decided to walk back on the Lemon Trail so up the stairs and along the path. Too beautiful to not see it twice.

The Amalfi coast has very few actual beach areas and what they do have tend to be very tiny. Maiori and Minori have actual beaches the largest being in Maiori, so when we got back we decided to spend some time there. The sand is black and somewhat rocky but so pretty.

Dinner was on our own so we ate under the lemon trees at Pinete 1903. Keeley and I had salads and shared a delicious pesto pasta with zucchini and tuna for Louise. Gelato for dessert!

We still have a few more days of this wonderful trip. More to come!