Monterosso: so much more than just the sea.

Other than the sea the most identifying factor of Monterosso must be the lemons.  Although their bursts of yellow are most eye-catching there is so much more to see if you know what you are looking for. Of these 'hidden' facts, tidbits and traditions, many make up the agricultural reality of Monterosso today. A walk through the land with a local agriculturalist is like walking across pages of a history book experiencing things hard to capture in pictures or in writing.

'Corbezolo' tree

 The fruit of the 'corbezzolo' tree (above)turns red when ripe and ripens just before the olives do, thus birds are attracted to these fruits saving the olives for harvest. For this reason these trees are planted in between the olive trees. 

An unripe 'corbezolo' fruit, when ripe they are bright red and four times this size.

The burl of this heather tree (erica) is naturally flame resistant and also very beautiful, thus they  were used to make tobacco pipes. A sign of this kind of tobacco pipe production in the area is the ariturismo la Pipetta, on the road between Monterosso and Levanto. It is named 'the pipe' because the heather burs from the area were brought there to be worked into tobacco pipes.  

A heather burl at the base of the root of the plant.

'Ginestra', Brooms, a grassy plant with bright yellow flowers are very abundant in the hills behind Monterosso and were, and are, used to tie up the grape vines.  Small bunches are gathered in winter then dried, making the fibrous stems even tougher. The little bunches are then soaked when needed to be used.

Little bunch tied up by special knot.

A commonly asked question is "when do lemon trees produce?" It depends.  We can see from the purple flowers on the left, purple leaves on the  right and ripe yellow lemon next to a new green lemon that this is a multiple season lemon tree that produces fruits 4 times a year. White flowers, yellow lemons and white leaves are signs of a lemon tree that produces fruit just 2 times a year.

Lemons unlike, olives and grape vines must be watered.  Thus the oldest lemon groves were build as close to the water source as possible, the canals, for there were no pumps to get the water uphill. These canals were then contained my small stone walls and stone steps were used to collect pools of water and channels to take water into the groves. To optimize land close to water the groves were built very close together with high walls are built to protect the lemons form the moist sea winds. Thus, walking amongst the lemon groves in Monterosso sometimes feels like a labyrinth. Due to the ancient beginnings of these lemon groves so many ancient structures were were destroyed by the flood.

Tight canal in between lemon groves.

Arch at the base of the canal uncovered by the rushing waters.

Rebuild Monterosso encourages visitors to stop, look and listen in the quiet corners that you may only find once. Think of what has passed before you, the hands that built the walls around you, feel what is here now. If you listen hard enough these trees can talk.