Citrus in the Air

Look at this tree.  Can you smell citrus in the air?  Is there just a whiff of the sea carried on the breeze?  Do the glossy leaves remind you of cerulean waters, Renoir-blue skies, and red-roofed white houses clinging to mountainsides?  Can you envision those meandering village alleyways tumbling down the hill to the harbor below?  If not, you surely aren't seeing all this photo has to offer.  

For this is an Italian lemon tree.  The tag on this tree David wasn't sure I should buy (Would it live in our kitchen?  It won't survive in the Arizona desert heat if planted outdoors.) says, "Italian lemons are...more commonly known as Sorrento lemons.  They are highly prized for their use in Italian cuisine and as the basis for the refreshing Old World liqueur Limoncello."

What more could I want in the dead of winter?  The view from my study window is gray skies and a steady drizzle.   But in the kitchen....ah, in the kitchen, the whole Amalfi Coast is waiting for me.  There I have brilliant blue skies and a sea to match.  I can remember the villages sprinkled along the sides of mountains, savor again the lemon-crusted chicken from the little deli one block from the Sorrento piazza,  and conjure travel dreams that will carry me far away--far, far beyond January and into the sunshine.