The Land Where Lemons Grow

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0120140421A celebration of the Italian love affair with citrus fruit.

Mixing travel writing, history and horticulture, author Helena Attlee sets out to meet Italy's dedicated gardeners and farmers - whose passion for their life's work is as intoxicating as the sweet scent of zagara (citrus blossom).

In this episode: the elaborate naming systems of Renaissance botanists for the myriad varieties of citrus; and a journey to the Gulf of Naples to experience the mild yet intensely flavoured juice of the Amalfi lemon.

Read by Francesca Dymond

Written by Helena Attlee

Abridged by Laurence Wareing

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron

First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2014.

Helena Attlee's travelogue exploring the Italian love affair with citrus fruit.

0220140422Sicily's rich tradition of citrus cultivation.

Citrus first arrived on the island in the ninth century, brought by the Arabs whose sophisticated irrigation systems made it viable there as a crop. The island is still renowned for the quality of its fruit, particularly the arancia rossa, the blood orange, hailed as the 'prince among oranges', which is grown in the shadow of Mount Etna.

Mixing travel writing, history and horticulture, author Helena Attlee takes a celebratory journey through Italy, exploring the special place that citrus holds in the Italian imagination.

Read by Francesca Dymond

Written by Helena Attlee

Abridged by Laurence Wareing

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron

First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2014.

Citrus and Sicily: how the Mafia had its origins in the lemon groves of the Conca d'Oro.

0320140423The extraordinary story of the Lake Garda lemon. In spite of the coolness of its northern latitude, Lake Garda was once the centre of a thriving citrus industry, producing extremely bitter lemons that were exported all over northern Europe. It was a feat only made possible by dogged determination and a lot of hard work.

Mixing travel writing, history and horticulture, Helena Attlee's celebratory journey through Italy explores the special place that citrus holds in the Italian imagination.

Read by Francesca Dymond

Written by Helena Attlee

Abridged by Laurence Wareing

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron

First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2014.

The extraordinary story of the Lake Garda lemon - prized for its bitterness.

0420140424Uncovering the origins of the fantastically violent and messy Battle of the Oranges - an annual event that marks the end of carnival in the Northern Italian town of Ivrea.

Mixing travel writing, history and horticulture, Helena Attlee's celebratory journey through Italy explores the special place that citrus holds in the Italian imagination.

Read by Francesca Dymond

Written by Helena Attlee

Abridged by Laurence Wareing

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron

First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2014.

The Battle of the Oranges. The joyously messy carnival of Ivrea, a town in northern Italy.

05 LAST20140425A journey to Calabria, in the deep south of Italy, to discover one of the rarest and most precious of citrus fruits: the bergamot.

Bergamot is the product of a natural cross-pollination between a lemon tree and a sour orange that occurred in Calabria in the mid-seventeenth century. It's very particular about its environment and fruits successfully only on a thin strip of land that runs for seventy-five kilometres from the Tyrrhenian coast to the shores of the Ionian Sea.

Mixing travel writing, history and horticulture, Helena Attlee's celebratory journey through Italy explores the special place that citrus holds in the Italian imagination.

Read by Francesca Dymond

Written by Helena Attlee

Abridged by Laurence Wareing

Produced by Kirsteen Cameron

First broadcast on Radio 4 in 2014.

A journey to the citrus groves of Calabria in search of liquid green gold: bergamot oil.