On the hunt for truffles in Bologna
I’ve visited a fair bit of Italy and absolutely love it. Friends of ours have a particular penchant for truffles, so we decided to visit this slightly under-the-radar town to check out what has drawn leading writers, philosophers and chefs (hello Rick Stein) here for centuries. Let’s start with the sights. It seems obligatory in this part of the world to have as many towers as possible – in fact, this was the way the noble families chose to demonstrate their wealth and for their own protection, so this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Bologna even has its own leaning tower – in fact, from my perspective at the top of the Basilica its neighbour was also looking decidedly wonky!
The Piazza Maggiore is the heart of the city and we walked through it several times without realising the reason we couldn’t find the famous Fountain of Neptune was because it was the huge shrouded thing currently under renovation – I’m sure it will be fabulous once it’s completed. The square is also home to the city’s main Basilica – if you’ve seen the ornate, marble-facaded cathedrals in this area, such as Florence or Orvieto, then you have an idea of what it should look like, but construction stopped for the building of a university (of course) and it is unfinished – in fact, I found that pretty fascinating as it gives you an idea of what the skeleton of the great Italian churches actually look like.
I mentioned the view from the top – there’s a terrace with views open until 6pm and worth the trip – mind you, I am not much of a fan of heights, hate lifts and hate anything where I can see down several stories, so maybe bear that in mind! From there, the panorama was outstanding and one of the buildings that caught my eye appeared to be a church where each new generation had decided to tack their own building on. So we went to have a look and it turns out that Basilica di Santo Stefano is pretty much that! It’s known locally as the seven churches, with an original Roman temple being added to over the last 1900 years – well worth a visit.
Now our main attraction was the truffle-hunting, so the next day we headed out on a fantastic tour, starting at a truffle factory, where the local truffle hunters still bring their prized findings (white truffles are the expensive ones and the going price is currently around €5000 per kg) for the brothers who own the factory to grade and then use in their wide range of products. The factory has been built with one eye on the American export market and complies with FDA requirements, so it is shiny, spotless and expensive-looking – a lot like the Ferraris not that far away in Maranello.
After an interesting tour from our enthusiastic guide, Ellenore, we headed off to hunt for truffles with Maurizio and his amazing dog, Macchia, certainly sounds exotic but it means Spot! We learnt how the dogs were trained to hunt for truffles, when’s a good time to find them, why they don’t use pigs (have you tried moving a pig out of the way?) and other fascinating facts, including the many things that no one knows about them. Macchia did her best and found a couple of tiny truffle nuggets, nothing that could be used but it was great to see her doing her job and evidently loving it – in fact she pulled that old doggy trick of sitting down and not budging when we were heading back to the car as she clearly hadn’t finished looking yet!
Following the thrill of the chase (although I doubt truffles move fast) we went to a local vineyard for wine-tasting before our Michelin-starred meal to top the trip off. I made a classic mistake at the vineyard as they had put out cheese and ham nibbles to pair with the wine and, having been asked why I hadn’t tried the ham, I explained I was vegetarian. Out comes a pear, an apple and an entire plate of different cheese for me. Just before our dinner. Oh well, it was all absolutely lovely and we were busy mentally totting up our luggage allowances to work out how many bottles we could get home with us. The truffle-inspired meal at Amerigo 1934 in Sauvigno uses local ingredients, in season only, to create authentic and innovative dishes from the region. It’s a recipe for success that has earned them high praise for the last 80 years and I was thrilled that they didn’t bat an eyelid at my vegetarianism. A memorable five-course meal ensued, with accompanying wine – a wonderful way to complete the tour.
Rolling out of bed the next morning it seemed a sensible idea to spend half an hour on a train and have a mooch around Florence. As it was all spur of the moment there was no chance of getting into any of the many museums or art galleries but we could still admire the scenery and passed a few pleasant hours checking out Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo and copies of various famous sculptures such as Michelangelo’s David. However, we all agreed that we wanted our last night’s meal back in Bologna and the hotel duly booked us into another great local restaurant. Which brings me back to Spaghetti Bolognese. The town is famous for this dish but their ragu sauce is never combined with spaghetti – you have to eat it with the wider ribbons of tagliatelle, which holds the sauce better – so don’t ever ask for a Spag Bol in Bologna!