Sorrento Farm and Food Experience including Olive Oil, Limoncello, Wine tasting
Olive groves, lemon terraces, three olive oils and a lunch cooked from the farm.
From $111 per person
Check AvailabilityAmalfi Coast Food and Wine
Two of the things grown and made on this coast carry European protection, and a third is a wine denomination named after it. The terraces that produce them are part of what UNESCO listed in 1997, which makes the food here a piece of the landscape rather than a souvenir of it.
The Sfusato Amalfitano, and why the terraces exist
What it is: a lemon variety with a tapered shape, a thick pale skin full of essential oils and a juicy, moderately acid flesh with few seeds. It is registered as Limone Costa d'Amalfi IGP.
Where it comes from: the protected area is all thirteen comuni — Amalfi, Atrani, Cetara, Conca dei Marini, Furore, Maiori, Minori, Positano, Praiano, Ravello, Scala, Tramonti and Vietri sul Mare. The lemons grow under pergolas of chestnut poles on terraces cut into the cliff, and those terraces are also what stops the hillside coming down.
Where you meet it: on every menu, in the shop windows as candied peel, and in your glass as limoncello.
Limoncello, and what it actually is
What it is: lemon peel steeped in neutral spirit, sweetened with syrup and served cold. No juice goes into it; the whole flavour is in the oil in the skin, which is why a thick-skinned lemon matters.
Where you meet it: at the end of every meal, in the tastings on the farm trips, and in the class where you make it yourself. The Amalfi Coast tours that visit a farm all include a tasting.
Colatura di alici, and Cetara's DOP
What it is: an amber sauce pressed out of anchovies layered with salt and left to ferment in wooden barrels. It is the direct descendant of Roman garum, and a few drops of it dress a plate of spaghetti with nothing else but garlic and parsley.
Where it comes from: Cetara, near the eastern end of the coast. In October 2020 Colatura di Alici di Cetara became the first Italian fishery product ever granted DOP status.
Where you meet it: in Cetara itself, and on menus from Maiori eastward. Ask for spaghetti alla colatura and you will get the point of it in one plate.
Costa d'Amalfi DOC, and the grapes nobody else has
What it is: a wine denomination created in 1995 covering thirteen comuni in the province of Salerno, with three named subzones — Ravello, Furore and Tramonti.
What is in the bottle: the whites are led by Falanghina and Biancolella, with local varieties such as Fenile, Ginestra, Pepella and Ripoli making up the rest. The reds are Aglianico, Piedirosso and Sciascinoso, and in Tramonti they must include at least twenty per cent Tintore di Tramonti, a grape grown almost nowhere else.
Where you meet it: on wine lists all along the coast, and at the source in Tramonti, which is the one comune of the thirteen that sits inland.
What to eat, and where it comes from
Scialatielli: a short, thick, hand-cut pasta invented on this coast in the twentieth century, usually served ai frutti di mare.
Delizia al limone: a dome of sponge soaked and filled with lemon cream, and the dessert every pasticceria on the coast competes on.
Provola and fior di latte: the cheeses come from the Lattari mountains behind, not from the coast itself — which is why the pizza in an inland farm kitchen is better than most of what is sold at sea level.
Anchovies, fresh: the same fish that becomes colatura, fried whole or marinated raw, and at its best in Cetara between spring and autumn.
What is in season when
| Season | What is happening on the terraces and in the boats |
|---|---|
| March–May | The main lemon harvest; anchovy fishing begins |
| June–August | Anchovies salted and pressed; tomatoes and courgettes at their peak |
| September–October | The grape harvest in Tramonti, Furore and Ravello |
| November–December | The year's colatura is drawn off and bottled |
| January–February | Olive pressing done, lemons still on the trees |
Learning to make it rather than just eating it
Five of the trips listed here put you in a kitchen instead of a vehicle: two pizza classes in Sorrento, a pasta class in a family house above Positano, a farm lunch with tastings, and a pizza school on a working agriturismo. All of them run two to four hours, which is exactly the half day nobody plans for, and all of them feed you at the end.
Half a day spare and an appetite?
The cooking and farm days run two to four hours and finish with the meal you have just made, which makes them the easiest thing to slot into a week here.
Where the food comes from
Ravioli & Tagliatelle Cooking Class at a Local's Home in Positano
Ravioli and tagliatelle by hand, in a family's own kitchen above Positano.
From $177 per person
Check AvailabilityPizza School with Wine and Limoncello Tasting in a Local Farm
A wood oven on an agriturismo, with the wine and limoncello from the same land.
From $94 per person
Check AvailabilityThe towns each of these belongs to are described on the towns of the coast, and every trip is listed on Amalfi Coast Italy Tours.