Truffle hunting in the Umbrian mountains

We were picked up early by Mac, a NZer married into an Italian family, and driven to the family land high in the Umbrian hills.

We passed many towns built on the sides of the mountain.

We continued on past all the villages to the top of the mountain which was over 3000 feet.

 

Fall has arrived in the mountains with spectacular colors.

 

The Chiacchiarini family along with a few other families bought this mountain top acreage from the Church in 1490 and have lived and farmed it ever since, yes that is a long time. In the summer the hills are full of sheep who have now been brought down for the winter so there were only a few cows left to graze.

These are the Chianina cows which provide the meat for the famous Florentine steak.

We were there with 5 other people to spend the day with the family, looking for truffles, cooking and eating.

Lucca is the hunter and with his dogs started out for the hunt...

So we followed to see what we could find....

 

The dog has sniffed out something...

Here it is a black winter truffle that grows wild in the area. There are three kinds of truffles that people here use for food with the most rare being the white truffle. This black one costs 1500 dollars a kg so it isn't cheap either.

On we go looking for more...

Mac explaining the truffles to us.

Now for breakfast on the mountain...

Starting with Prosceco and Pecorino cheese made by the family from their sheep's milk, the older the cheese the more crumbly and delicious.

Fresh, scrambled eggs with grated truffles...

Now that is a good start to a great day...

Now back down the mountain to the little village that is home to the family and is their summer home. In the winter they go back down to live in Montefalco which is a village in the valley. This mountain village has maybe ten houses.

 

There are only a few buildings in the village and one of them holds the communal oven which is used for baking bread and cooking.

The Italians have a strong connection to their ancestral lands and hold on to them through many generations. When the man dies, by law the inheritance is given half to the wife and the other half is divided to all his heirs so the land gets chopped up through every generation but few children ever sell their share.

So even though this village is very small it is now owned by many families who hold on to their piece of land. This family is redoing an old barn to become a residence for another generation. Each house contains many small rooms to accommodate the different families.

The great, great uncle and the youngest of the family gathering greens for our meal.

We spent the rest of the day with the family, helping with the past, eating and enjoying their company.

This is Francesca, her husband Mac and her father Dante. We are in the communal pasta making shed.

Of course there is antipasti for everyone.

Getting help cutting the pasta

The pasta being served and it was good!

The next course was guinea fowl, meat stuffing and potato.

Then homemade sausages from the BBQ served with the freshly picked greens.

Dessert was an autumn cake made by Nonna with all ingredients from the farm including the chestnuts.

We loved sharing our meal with the whole family...

Don was entertaining this end of the table.

This was a very special day, one of the best we have had on this holiday, an opportunity to go into the mountains, spend time with the family with no pretensions and have a genuine and intimate glance into another way of life.

 

 

 

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