The Solo Scale:

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Truffles have become their own short-hand for fancy, alongside caviar and champagne. Want a quick way to add dollars to your bill? Opt to have white truffles added to your meal. It will absolutely be delicious, but it will also set you back. In Italy, especially the region of Umbria, truffle-hunting is a local past-time. It’s not a money-making endeavor, seeing as the local boars love truffle hunting just as much as humans do. That makes it difficult to gather much. That said, farms can still end up selling to restaurants and at markets, though they’re not going to become rich doing it.

There are several options you can take for an Italian truffle excursion. I chose the Pettino Country Experience, which departs from Spoleto (with pick-up & drop-off!). The ride isn’t short and if you’re prone to motion sickness, you may want to close your eyes as the journey takes you up many a winding road in the Italian countryside. It also ascends a hill or two. That means that if you’re like me, you might have trouble with your ears not popping. Bring some mint or gum to help with that, just in case!

Upon your arrival at the local family farm, coffee and food awaits (olive oil cake on my tour day). We spent time learning a little more about the family that operated the farm, met their children and their dogs, and spent some time in their home.

My mother’s side of the family is from a small town in Italy quite like Pettino. It really evokes that small and focused sense of community, which made me feel a touch homesick.

You’ll also get a chance to meet some of the wildlife before you even get going. The family had stray cats and twenty-one dogs that roam the property. There’s also cattle grazing nearby, sheep that you’ll see later, and of the wilder variety, there are the wild boars who tend to unearth many of the truffles that we were there to hunt. After we’d had our coffee and cake, we set off in SUVs for the hunt. I went with Luca, who mostly spoke Italian and was in charge of the three truffle hunting dogs (who were riding in our trunk). They spent most of the ride whining, likely because of the excitement of what they were about to do.

If you’re in a large group, you’ re split into smaller ones as you head out in cars to the truffle-hunting grounds. I was in a car with the dogkeeper, Luca, who spoke mostly Italian. Luckily, I have enough conversational Italian that I was able to chat a little as we drove, with the three truffle dogs securely tucked away in the back of our car.

At the destination, it’s time for the dogs to work. It’s instantly clear that they’re very excited to do their job! This is because they get treats for successfully bringing a truffle back to Luca. We traipsed along as Luca called ‘dai, dai, dai’ (give, give, give), and the dogs exchanged their treasures for treats. It’s lucky that they want the treats more, given that the truffles aren’t just a delicacy for humans. In fact, one of the bigger problems is wildlife like boars rooting out the truffles, making a complete mess. The dogs on our day petered out about midway. That implied that a lot of the truffles in the area either weren’t mature, or weren’t there.

We walked back to a little grove and back, where we weighed the truffles that were unearthed. The dogs had discovered around 100g in only fifteen minutes. Once the dogs were loaded back into the truck, we headed along some spectacularly unpaved roads to our next stop. This stop is a sheep pasture where large merino dogs were brought out to show off their shepherding skills. Here’s a word of caution. Watch where you step in the field, since there were plenty of patties to step in and get your shoes dirty.

Here, the group will be served prosecco, pecorino cheese, and scrambled eggs with shaved truffle on top. The eggs are a fairly mild flavour, so the truffle will stand out. While you won’t be able to get seconds of the eggs & truffle, they will happily refill your prosecco glasses as often as you like until that’s gone. Once you’ve spent a little time here in the shade watching the sheep, you’ll pack up and go back to the starting point.

Here, you’ll get a last minute bio break and see the family before heading back to town. If you’re a fan of truffles or just want an experience in a small Italian town, this excursion is fantastic and will satiate your truffle needs!

Ready to taste truffles in Italy? Check out the tours that operate or book the Pettino experience!

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