White Truffles and San Miniato

Kyle Phillips of About.com's Italian Cuisine site writes:

Though Alba and Acqualagna are perhaps the best known areas for white truffles in Italy, Tuscany also has several areas renowned for the noble tubers, and beginning this week there will be a series of events between San Miniato, Volterra, and Palaia, held under the auspices of the Settimana Internazioneale del Tartufo Bianco delle Colline San Miniatesi that will run from October 29 to November 9. In particular, on October 29 the Azienda Agricola San Gervasio will award a prize to the truffle picker who brings in the best truffle, on November 6th the city of Volterra will celebrate the first mystery written in Italian. In addition, throughout the week local restaurants will be adding truffle dishes to their menus. And there will be truffle markets. If you're in Italy, it's a wonderful opportunity! And if you're not now, San Miniato is quite beautiful and well worth a journey; though now the excitement is about white truffles they also have black truffles from September though March, and other lesser kinds through May. Foodies take note!
More about the truffles, truffle festivals, and many recipes.

So, of course, we went. Take a virtual tour of the San Miniato Truffle Fair.

About San Miniato, which is half way between Florence and Pisa, and will make for a perfect day trip.

From What's on When: During the last three weekends in November, the white truffle festival in San Miniato offers cut-price tartufi plus wines, cheeses, salamis, olive oils, grappas and much more.

More Truffles:

Piemonte is known for its fine cuisine and truffles. You can arrange a truffle hunt there.

Kyle Phillips writes of the Alba Truffle Festival, one of the big ones in Italy.

Aolmaia has some information on truffle festivals and can arrange truffled weekends.

More on White Truffles from Delicious Italy.

Pisa online has some truffle pictures and information in Italian.

Acqualagna, in the Marche region, has a truffle fair in October and November. The site also features a truffle price widget so you can get an idea of the current truffle prices called borsa del tartufo. (Remember that truffles are good when the wine is bad--meaning that late autumn rains ruin grapes, but create an ideal condition for the truffle.)

Truffle Tours and Vacations From Select Italy

Wine & Truffles: Full Day Wine Excursion: Visit Costigliole d'Asti, Asti, and Canelli from Turin.

Tuscany Truffle Affair: 4 nights discovering the truffles of hidden secret San Giovanni d'Asso with a truffle-based cooking class.

What Exactly Is a Truffle Anyway?

ItalianMade has an excellent article called: What is the White Truffle? It tells you more than you probably want to know, and has pictures down to the cellular level.

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