Laughter and lemon trees in Italy!
From: Gillian at One Stop Italy
As you can imagine, I have a vast store of anecdotes about my various visits to Italy over the past 20 or so years. Sometimes my mind wanders back to funny things that I have seen or have happened to me or my family whilst over there, and many years later the memory of them still brightens up a dull day.
This morning I was thinking about the time we were sitting in the garden of the house we were renting and noticed a couple of men standing around some lemon trees in the grounds of the house opposite. The men looked like farmers and their conversation was animated, involving quite a bit of pointing and arm-waving. The discussions seemed to go on for ages, and I was fascinated by it all but of course couldn’t see or hear enough to understand what was going on. Then suddenly one of the men had clearly had enough, grabbed hold of one of the trees and moved it! Then did the same to another! And another! We then realised that each of these young trees was in an individual tub on wheels. The talking point had obviously been about the correct position for them to be in to get the most sunlight.
My husband and I couldn’t stop ourselves from laughing, watching all these trees gliding about with the lemons shaking, like some surreal version of Strictly Come Dancing.
I can’t see a lemon nowadays without thinking of it!
Thanks for a fun reminder of Italian life! Indeed, that’s what the “limonaia” is for, an outbuilding storing the lemon trees, and other citrus, in the winter-time. Here are some pics: http://goo.gl/SFsnt. Apart from Limone, on Lake Garda, where they grow outdoors, I seem to think that lemons will not flourish further north than Tuscany, thanks also to their twice-annual journey, as described above!
Hi Roberta and thanks for your comment.
The incident I referred to took place in central Tuscany, in April, about 15 years ago. I reckon the lemon trees had just been taken out of “winter storage”! It’s funny that you should mention Limone on Lake Garda, as I stayed in a hotel there with my husband over 20 years ago and can still remember seeing the lemons growing in the grounds of villas. That little town must somehow be sheltered from the worst of the winter weather.