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Truffle experience in Tuscany
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| Program: Walk through
the woods with an expert truffle guide and his dog finding truffles and ending
with a special truffle menu dinner.
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| Truffle Tour Details |
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You'll enjoy some hours walking through our typical woods,
picking truffles with a special guide, also a forester, an expert, but mostly a
friend who will teach how to find truffles with Alba, his wonderful and
inseparable dog. After this wonderful experience you'll discover a unique old
town:
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Moreno and Alba
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Anghiari, a jewel case between the Tevere and
Arno rivers. Anghiari is a wonderful middle-age town overlooking the green
valley of the northern Tevere river.
Anghiari is a wonderful middle-age town overlooking the green
valley of the northern Tevere river. Has been an inviolable bastion for its
XIII Century town walls and was very important during the Middle-age for its
strategic position.
Became allied and witness of Florence after the battle on the
June 29th 1440, "the battle of Anghiari", that Leonardo da Vinci has celebrated
on his disappeared masterpiece, still now object of historical researches.
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The mystery breeze and the magic atmosphere across it's medieval alleys that
takes you in the times of swords.
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This special day will end only after a delicious dinner with an
unforgettable Truffle Menu that you'll enjoy in a typical Truffle Trattoria
where you'll have the pleasure to taste: Cheese maker's toast with black
truffle Bean's and tomato's soup with truffle Pappardelle with truffle and
Parmesan cheese Tagliata beef with truffle Seasonal fruit tart.
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| Program: Walk through the
woods with an expert truffle guide and his dog finding truffles and ending with
a special truffle menu dinner.
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| More info on request: info@lalimonaia.net
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| Truffle History
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The truffle is a fruit of the land, known from the oldest
times. We have testimonies of it from Sumeri and from Jacob times around 1700
b.C. Greeks named it "hydnon", from where comes idnologia, the science of
truffles, or "Idra", Latins named it "tub er"
from the verb tumere (swelling), Arabs named it "ramech alchamech tufus" or
tomer and kemas, Spanish "turma de tierra", French "truffe" ( with the meaning
of fraud, from the performance "Tartufe" of Molière - 1664), English "truffle"
and Germans "truffel". Plutarco asserted that the truffle was born from the
water, hot and thunderbolts combined effects. The origin of the truffle was not
determined so science and popular beliefs covered truffles with mystery so long
that no one knows if it should be an animal or a plant. During the XVIII
Century all the Co urts
considered the truffle as one of the most precious things. The truffle picking
was a great entertainment for the Court guests. From here probably start the
truffle hunt with elegant animals like dogs. Gioacchino Rossini named it " the
Mozart of mushrooms" , Lord Byron was use to have a truffle on his writing-desk
so that it's aroma should give him creativeness and Alexandre Dumas named it
Sancta Sanctorum of the table. In 1949 Italians gave it as present, for the
first time, to Rita Haywort, and then to the President of U.S.A. Harry Truman,
Sir Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe etc.
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| Truffles |
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The
truffle is formed by a high quantity of water and mineral salts absorbed from
the soil through the roots of the tree with whom it leaves in symbiosis. It
rises and grows principally near poplars, lime-trees, oaks and willow-trees.
The characteristic colours, flavours and aromas of truffles will be determinate
by the type of tree. For example the truffles that grows near oaks will have a
more pregnant while those near lime-trees will be more light and aromatic.
Their form, on the contrary, will depend from the soil: if it will be soft the
truffle will be more smooth, if the soil will be more solid the truffle will be
knotty and pimply. Tuscany is one of the most important regions in Italy for
truffle production. It is mainly the white truffle which is harvested (Tuber
magnatum Pico), the most prized. There are also other varieties distributed in
varying amounts across the region such as the Whitish truffle (Tuber borchii
Vitt.) the summer black truffle (Tuber aestivum Vitt.) the black truffle (Tuber
uncinatum Chatin) the precious black truffle (Tuber melanosporum Vitt.) the
winter black truffle (Tuber brumale Vitt.).
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Tuber aestivum
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Tuber melanosporum
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Tuber mgnatum pico
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| The white truffle
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This is the most valuable variety with the largest
diffusion in Tuscany. It boasts a picking tradition which is not inferior to
that of the more renowned regions. It is found in certain areas of the
north-eastern Appenines (the areas of Mugello, Casentino and the Val Tiberina)
an d in a
fairly large central hilly area which extends from the lower Valdarno up to the
border with Lazio (San Casciano dei Bagni). This area includes the lower
Valdarno, the Valdera, the Volterrano, the Chianti hills, the Valdelsa, the Val
d'Arbia, Crete Senesi, part of the Val di Chiana and the Val di Paglia. XVI
Century Tuscany map The areas where truffles are found coincide with very
special environments, with characteristics able to guarantee this valuable
fungus the presence of symbiotic plants and damp, soft, clayey, earth. For
example, the precious white truffle may be found in woods at the bottom of a
valley, in woods close to rivers and streams, on poplars, willows, hazelnuts,
or on oak trees close to cultivated areas or at the edges of meadows.
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| Ancient map of Tuscany XVI century |
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Program: Walk through the woods with an
expert truffle guide and his dog finding truffles and ending with a special
truffle menu dinner.
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More info on request info@lalimonaia.net
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