Truffle Hunting in Torciano Winery (A Cultural Experience You Cannot Miss!)
Truffle hunting in Italy is the perfect addition to your road trip through Tuscany, Italy. Known for its wines, cheeses and truffle dishes, Tuscany is one of the best regions for eating good food and drinking good wine.
Truffle hunting is a great way to learn everything about truffles – the prized crop of Italy, and how they’re harvested. They grow underground near tree roots, so you’ll enjoy a nice hike through the woods while learning the secrets behind why they’re so expensive! You might be wondering if pigs are used for truffle hunting. The answer is no! Back in the day, truffle hunters used pigs to sniff the fungi from the ground since it resembled the smell of their hormones But that didn’t last very long.
You see, the pigs would eat the fungi and damage the soil in the process, preventing more truffles to grow in the area. So truffle hunters started training dogs from a young age to hunt for this sought out produce of Italy because they were more tamed. (However, sometimes they’ll sneakily eat them!) The results are far more satisfactory and you get to go home with ALL the truffles!
So into the forest you’ll go while you watch the doggos sniff out the truffles. During the hunt, you’ll learn more about the process while experiencing a day in the life of a truffle hunter. (It’s crazy to think it’s a full time job!). The best part comes next. After you’ve gathered enough of those yummy but initially gross-looking fungi, most tours prepare a truffle-infused meal to celebrate!
Starting Your Truffle Hunt in Florence or Chianti Hills?
If you’re in Florence, it’s easy to take a day trip to hunt for truffles from there, since the Chianti hills are so close. After all, Florence is part of the Tuscany region! So your journey to the hunting grounds shouldn’t last more than 45 minutes to an hour. This also makes taking a half-day trip easy, depending on what you want to do.
The truffle hunting tour near San Gimignano, in Tuscany, at Tenuta Torciano Winery, is all based on truffles and will offer you an experience of about an hour in the woods with beautiful trained dogs followed by an exquisite lasagna lunch with truffle, Tuscan dishes and a vertical tasting of more than 10 Tuscan products. In addition, it will also be possible to book an entire Cooking Class 100% truffle based. Keep an eye out for this experience and the Pasta Cooking Class in the winery!
The best thing about truffles is that they grow all year around! However, depending on which truffle you like – white or black, some months are better than others. So what are you waiting for? Book now your truffle hunting experience in Torciano Winery.
Phone: +39 3662324058
Mail: booking@torciano.com
Author
Luciana Cilemmi
Luciana Cilemmi, deals with Magazine, Style Director and Co-founder of Tenuta Torciano winery and Tenute Giachi wines and the innovative Viviarium Restaurant of Bottega Torciano- Tenuta Torciano & Winery is part of an international reality that is born in Italy by an initiative of Pierluigi Giachi and Luciana Cilemmi, who have worked for years in the Italian wine market , expanding throughout in the United States, managed and controlled by the american company ' Bellavini winery. Luciana Cilemmi was born in San Gimignano to a family of artists specialised in the restoration of medieval buildings. Having completed her technical studies, she now pursues the interests passed on to her by her family, like her passion for artistic objects, in particular works of art created in Tuscany between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But she reserves her keenest enthusiasm for the historic works completed in San Gimignano between 1100 and 1300. Alongside her love of medieval history, she is fascinated in wines produced from Tuscan vineyards, which, together with saffron and wool, were the most sought-after goods traded by the wealthy noble families of San Gimignano already in medieval times. Luciana Cilemmi left San Gimignano at the age of 21 and embarked on a pilgrimage in search of knowledge and to discover the new winemaking skills and products that were then developing both in Italy and in France. In the meantime she added to her knowledge of wine by attending specialised courses and becoming a master of wine. On returning to Siena, she discovered a wonderful area near Murlo where she fell in love with the tiny, unspoilt village of Montepescini. She bought the estate of Montepescini where, based on the experience she had acquired over the years, she found a particular lie of the land, special climatic conditions and an altitude suited to the creation of great wines. With enormous enthusiasm, doggedness and considerable effort, a reclamation programme was started to renew the terrain which was then used to plant 30 hectares of specialised vines. Sangiovese is the dominant vine, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. Years of experimentation and the introduction of new winemaking techniques eventually led to the creation of Luciana di Memmi’s prestigious wines. Some years ago, Luciana Cilemmi succeeded in realising her dream of a lifetime: to return to her home town, San Gimignano. She was destined to buy the historic palace with the medieval tower, which had been owned by the prestigious Useppi family from 1200 to 1927 and had then passed to the noble and historic Chigi family of Siena. The Useppi were a powerful Sienese family who owned several castles. This beautiful medieval building has an elegant and distinctive façade full of Sienese and Pisan architectural influences. If you find yourself in San Gimignano, make sure you visit the Chigi Tower and Palace. Luciana Cilemmi holds regular events in the rooms of the medieval tower, such as the presentation of wines, both from her vineyards and elsewhere, attended by international journalists, experts from the sector and critics. She also organises exhibitions of works of art and paintings, and press conferences on the subject of "Wine in San Gimignano during medieval times”. Visiting the home of Luciana Cilemmi is like re-living an aspect of the past that will not return except through the imagination of those who have believed and continue to believe in this story.
