Meet Hedwig.
Hedwig is a very, very special dog. Trained since birth to be attracted to the smell of white truffles (yes, they actually spike the mother's milk with truffle!), Hedwig goes out into the forest and her insanely trained nose can find truffles buried deep within the ground.
Luca and his two daughters are truffle hunters. The above photo comes from a cool exhibit at the Truffle Festival by photographer Steve McCurry, who decided to photograph a series on the area's truffle hunters.
Luca's family has 7 truffle dogs. You need a license to be a truffle hunter, and you can only go out with at most 2 dogs at a time. The rules are strict. You can only harvest from October to February. However, Luca says the truffles in November and December are the best.
The Truffle Hunt in Montà
We arrive at Montà on Sunday morning for our truffle hunt. Luca and Hedwig meet us at the parking lot and guide us to the top of the hill.
Hedwig is excited, and a bit impatient, wanting to go find some truffles.
We walk past a memorial at the top of the hill, dedicated to the men who died fighting the war in 1942-1943 in the campaign against Russia.
As we continue walking, we can't help but be awed by the views.
And we are on our way!
The path on which we hike is peaceful and serene. Nobody else is here except for us. Hedwig is energetic and often shoots ahead of everyone else when she smells something.
But Luca is a good leader. He yells out commands, and Hedwig listens.
Luca is like the dog whisperer.
He kneels alongside Hedwig, speaking to her, calming her down, while also helping her dig. This balance is not easy, and we are quite impressed.
Whenever Hedwig finds a truffle, Luca gently guides her to give the truffle to him. In almost every case, the truffles are perfectly intact, which is amazing given how energetic and physical the whole process is!
Luca explained that truffles like to latch onto the small micro-root structures under the trees.
During the course of our 1+ hour hike, Hedwig found a total of six black truffles and five biancetta (mini-white, or pink truffles).
Biancetta have a garlicky flavor and are more reminiscent of white truffles (compared to black ones).
The Dog Whisperer.
Watch this video to get an even better feel of what it was like to be on the hike.
Santuario dei Piloni (the Sanctuary of Pillars)
For the last part of the hike, we walked along the Santuario dei Piloni (the Sanctuary of Pillars). This path includes a church as well as a number of chapels along a path, each of which includes a scene (made with plaster) from the life of Jesus.
There are 13 chapels in all along the path showing the scenes in chronological order.
Here's Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane. You can see the disciples sleeping in the background.
From the Top of the Hill
The final part of the hike leads to these amazing vistas of the surrounding area.
Coming from crowded Hong Kong, I find this expansive nature to be SO NOURISHING for the soul.
What an incredible way to end the hike!
Thank you Luca and Hedwig so much for the truffle hunt. Thank you Evan from Piemonte Mio for arranging this tour! We paid 35 Euros per person to go on this hunt, and we got to keep all the truffles!
Next up: how we brought these truffles to a restaurant and how they prepared it!
