Truffle hunting in tuscany
How can you not? This feels like a very touristy thing to do, and to be honest, it is.. But, when it Rome.. or when in Tuscany, do as the Tuscans do.
Tuscans love their truffles. It’s one of their typical dishes in the region, because they grow prevalently here. I ended up booking a last-minute experience on Airbnb the night before. We arrived at a designated spot near a ’truffle farm’ where Mirco met us, before driving 5 minutes down the road to where we would be hunting for truffles. We had a small group of eight of us, which was nice and intimate.
Mirco was lovely, you could tell he was really passionate about the job and his dogs. He had two, who he used on this day, to help us find truffles – Zara (his principessa) and Lucifer (affectionately nicknamed after the ’devil’). We each took turns holding the leashes and letting the dogs sniff around. Then, when they caught a scent, they were off, digging and trying to get to the truffle. But you had to be quick, because if they scratch the truffle or damage it, its value depreciates.
For us, a damaged truffle wasn’t the end of the world. We each managed to find one or two small black truffles, that we could put on our pasta for dinner that night. But when you’re hunting the rare white truffles, a small scratch or imperfection, could mean the difference of hundreds of dollars when it’s sold at market.
Cost
Let’s not beat around the bush (we can leave that to the dogs), truffle hunting is not cheap. I chose an experience on the ’cheaper’ side of things. It was a couple of hours in the morning, we got to learn a bit about truffle hunting, dig out our own truffle or two, then to wrap up, we all gathered around a picnic table and ate some freshly shaved truffle and truffle oil on top of some bread. It cost just over 200AUD for two of us. Some experiences can be up to double that price, but they include fancy, three-course lunches with all the trimmings.
To be honest, I didn’t really want to pay much more than what we did - but each to their own. If you’re obsessed with truffles, then maybe a three-course lunch is right up your alley.
Either way, the options online are endless and you can’t go wrong. I booked the night before, but we got lucky. If you’re going in the off-peak seasons, you'd be able to get away with booking something around a week in advance. Otherwise, if you want to organise it early, there’s no harm in that either – you might just have to hope the weather (and truffle gods) are in your favour.