The foodie treats every traveller who visits the Amalfi Coast must enjoy

If life gives you juicy lemons, there's a good chance you're on the Amalfi Coast. On Italy's famously photogenic shoreline, lemon trees are everywhere. The sunny climate is perfect for citrus fruit to grow on steep terraces, in gardens and potted on balconies. Taste one that's grown organically under the Italian sun, and supermarket citrus will never suffice again.

Along the snaking Amalfi Coast Drive, the cliff-hewn road that connects 13 towns and villages from Sorrento to Salerno, fruit stalls display gorgeous big lemons and sell icy homemade lemonade drinks for five euros apiece.

I'm at Il San Pietro di Positano, a clifftop stunner that's surely one of the most beautiful hotels in the world. Favoured by well-heeled travellers and the international jet-set, the hotel opened in 1970 and has cast a scenic spell over guests ever since.

In the hotel's terraced organic vegetable garden, lemons grow in glorious abundance. Chefs and bartenders use the juice, the rind and the sunshine-yellow flesh in beverages and snacks, main courses and desserts. The hotel's signature drink is Elephant's Milk, a mix of almond milk, mineral water and lemon juice that's unexpectedly delicious.

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Still salty from a quick dip in the sea, I dive into lunch at Carlino, Il San Pietro's beachfront cafe. Lemon juice is liberally drizzled on the shrimp Caesar salad, while the local mozzarella is grilled in lemon tree leaves. A simple dish of spaghetti with lemon and chilli is anything but basic, its nuanced texture and flavours satisfying my mouth and my heart.

Later that evening at Zass, the hotel's Michelin-starred fine-dining restaurant, we have no room left for dessert after a magnificent dinner that includes fresh-caught octopus and tender veal Milanese. Undeterred, the chef insists on sending out a selection of petit fours, little sweet treats to finish the meal. Everybody's favourite? The candied lemon peel, of course. ilsanpietro.com