Our History

My experience is different but at the same time it is similar to other truffle hunters experiences. The truffle collection is my hobby and a passion.

It has began 20 years ago. I was in a field called “Piana di Nardo”, near Pianello creek, with my hunting dog, Kitty, looking for bonsai. Suddenly I found a little bonsai and as I pulled it out then I saw a small whitish ball attached to the roots.

I immediately thought it was a truffle. I called Kitty back but the dog was not interested, so I started to poke around through soil and the foliage.

I was amazed and I realized I had just found few other black truffles and that day i became a truffle hunter. I got regional truffle licence and then I trained a dog, it was a mixed-breed dog, named Riccio’.

For days my dog and me were walking around seeking for truffle but I didn’t know where to find the precious tuber, so I aimlessly spent most of my time looking for them. Any truffle hunters helped me or suggested me the right place to harvest them and also the truffle season was wrong.
One day in the January 1993, I accidentally walked past a truffle ground, my dog suddenly got excited, it started to wag the tale very quickly, and it found a black truffle - as big as a mandarin. I was extremely happy, I kissed Riccio’ and I lifted it up like a trophy when you win a word cup!

I thought of myself, “if Riccio` found one, he will be able to find some more”! The spring came and we collected more and more truffle until one day when something horrible happened: Riccio ate some poison. I ran to the vet but it was pointless, Riccio` died.
I was so shocked that I decided to quit hunting truffles.

After long time, one of my friends gave me a pointer puppy, I called my new dog-partner ``Nerina``. I went back to seek truffles again. I was proud of Nerina she made me discover more areas rich of truffle. In the same year I purchased “Dick”, who was already 12 years old, with a stubborn personality: he didn’t tolerate any other dogs while digging and if I tried to take truffles out from the hole, he would bite me as well. The only way to get truffles from Dick was to throw a treat to distract him. We were not friends, we worked together: he found truffles and I gave him rewards.

Over the past 10 years I had so many legendary companions. We had so many adventures together: up and down on mountains, woods, hills, seaside, from dawn to the sunset, with any weather condition, looking for prestigious fungus to bring to the table…

Today I turned my passion in a family business: the truffle market. My experience has taught me that only if you respect nature you can benefit from it, “never expect more than nature has to offer to you”

Being rational allows you to live in harmony with animals, woodland, fungi, these live in a perfect ecosystem, beneficial for all living creatures mankind included.