Amalfi, Italy (CNN) — Above the green hills of the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy, an agile farmer leaps across terraced lemon groves overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
Balancing between one wooden pole and another, the not-so-young acrobat defies gravity, bending to pick lemons and transport them in crates weighing more than 55 pounds between vertical gardens more than 1,312 feet above the ground.
A strong aroma of the unique bittersweet scent of citrus surrounds him. The sound of waves below masks the hum of car traffic.
“Not blood, but lemon juice runs through my veins,” says 87-year-old farmer Gigino Aceto, whose family has been growing lemons here since the 1800s.
He was even conceived among these plants.
“In my parents’ old days, the lack of space and intimacy meant that love was made outdoors, underneath the citrus trees,” he says with a smile.
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