San Miniato Truffle Festival

On Sunday we headed off to San Miniato for the Mercato Nazionale del Tartufo Bianco which was being held for three weekends in November. We really did not know what to expect!


We hopped on a train here in Siena and within an hour and a half we had reached San Miniato, a small town in Tuscany half way between Pisa and Florence. We had brought Oliver along so he could enjoy the culinary adventure with us. San Miniato, like a number of towns in Italy, has two parts: Basso (lower) and Alto (upper). The Alto part is usually the older part of the town, while the Basso is the newer part, consequently the one with the train station.

We arrived to a deserted train station-you would not know that there was a large festival going on! I had read that it is a steep 4km walk from the train station to San Miniato Alto so we really were not keen on that option. After a number of phone calls to various taxi companies, we finally found one that was willing to drive us, and Mr. O, up to San Miniato Alto. All the roads leading up to San Miniato Alto were blocked and our taxi driver got screamed at by one angry cop. Nonetheless, in a few minutes we had arrived.

San Miniato is a very small town and all the piazzas in the town were selling various products in addition to the tartufo bianco, including: a number of various cheeses; olio nuovo (the new olive oil which is bright green); wine; pesto; and even a special liquor made of blueberries! It was all really interesting and so surprising that so many people turned out for this festival.


This person was selling pesto......(one of the best parts of the whole day were all the free samples!)

This is a picture of the cheese we bought: a special type of pecorino that is aged under hay. We bought two different types of the same cheese; one aged more than the other.



And the real thing! It was really amazing to see so many truffles. Apparently this year was not a very good year for the truffle, lack of rain, so there were fewer truffles. The cost for the majority of the truffles here ranged from 2,000 to 3,500 Euros per kg (so, about $1,500 a pound!). Yikes!


Below is Piazza della Repubblica and some of the tents....

After walking around for a bit, we headed to find something to eat. In Piazza del Duomo, there were large tents where you could order food featuring truffles. We ordered a sausage and truffle sandwich-big mistake! I can be a little picky about meat, but this was way beyond my limit: the sausage was 100% raw! Not cooked at all. Apparently this is the way, this specific type of sandwich is cooked: using raw sausage. Luckily, they agreed to cook the sausage for us. At least we will know better next time!


Sunset in San Miniato.......

Now it was time to hike the 4km downhill back to the train station!