Truffle hunting in Tuscany

We have signed up for the truffle hunting excursion from Livorno in October on the Whisper. Has anyone taken this excursion, and if so, is it worth the cost?

Many thanks.

Depends on how many truffles you find!

Just curious since I love truffles. Are you allowed to bring them back on the ship?

We have done the truffle hunt in Tucany! It was one of the best shore excursions we have ever done. I'll speak to the excursion that we did....have no idea if it would be the same exact trip, but I'll hit the high spots of our excursion.

We arrived at the facility where our lunch would be served and met our guide and "our" dog, Giotto. There were about a dozen of us in our group and our leader and Giotto's handler was Lucca. We took 2 mini vans to a location where Giotto would do his hunting. We, as people, did not do the hunting. That was Giotto's job. It was explained to us at the onset that Giotto was a young dog and had only hunted 2 times previous to our outing. He might find something, but there was a good possibility he would not. The woods that we entered were nothing sort of magical. Think of the woods of a fairy tale and you've got it. We were instructed not to touch Giotto as he worked. He needs full concentration on his job. Long story short, he found 3!!! Lucca and all of us were thrilled that Giotto had done so well. We got to see where the truffles were dug from the ground, they were passed around, and we all smelled them (mmm!) Then it was back to "truffle central" for lunch....each course had fresh truffles in them! It was a most wonderful day. I hope you have the same terrific experience we did! Good luck!

Mudhen - Thank you so much for the information. It certainly does sound wonderful.

Sounds like my kind of excursion!

It was truly wonderful! We'd do it again in a heart beat. The only thing that could match it was falconing in Scotland (Crystal excursion). Equally fabulous!

Depends on how many truffles you find!

Sounds like my kind of excursion!

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Thank you all for your replies.

Hope you have as good a time as we did! Let us know how it went when you return!

We did the Truffle Hunting Tour October 2016, with our then 12 year old and 17 year old kids. It was a highlight of our cruise. We had a fabulous time, well worth doing. The scenery to the Forcoli Truffle farm is spectacular.

As Mudhen mentioned earlier it is like being in an enchanted forest and then a superb lunch to follow.

We were very lucky with the passengers on our tour, ourselves and another American family, whom we just met during lunch, organised a tour privately from Savini in Forcoli directly to San Gimignano. Our kids still talk about that trip.

Really recommend you book it.

First Photo is our Kids with Luca the Truffle Hunter.

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Angelica Our local Italian Guide whom we coincidentally had a few years previously , when we visited Antinori - Badia Di Passignano. She was superb.

Also pictured is Bilba the dog

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awwww...!!! Love the photo! It reminds me of the wonderful day we had as well!!

Lunch

Anti-Pasti platter all with Truffle

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Lastly Truffle Pasta. I still dream of this....

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Wow. Thanks for the great photos! We have signed up for it and are so looking forward to the experience.

Great news! Look forward to hearing how you get on.

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Mudhen, I would go again!

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Mudhen, I would go again!

 

 

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ha ha.....we too! It was so refreshing to do an excursion that didn't involve touring a museum, or church, or battlement. Not that those aren't interesting, but you can only appreciate so many gold crucifixs......!!! (giggle!)