Last week we had a custom small group tour who, from a base in Spoleto, explored Umbria, taking in Assisi, Perugia, Montefalco, Bevagna and Norcia and also spent a couple of days in Rome. Together with the Italian cooking lessons the highlight of the trip for me was the truffle hunt in the hills of Umbria which we went on. We set off on a beautiful crisp autumn morning for the hills overlooking the valley of Spoleto accompanied by a local truffle hunter and his two dogs. The views alone would have been worth the trip. One of the dogs was an experienced truffle hunter but the other was only a pup and so the older dog kept “stealing” the truffles on the younger dog. Apparently it will take another couple of years before the younger dog is fully trained and will be able to stand his own. The precious black truffles (Tuber melanosporum) are not in season yet so we had to make do with the summer truffles (Tuber aestivum) but it was a fairly successful hunt and we found more than a dozen truffles (albeit fairly small ones). The truffle hunter was off to Rome the next day to a couple of the capital’s top restaurants to deliver truffles but luckily we didn’t have to go that far so, after a quick clean (for both us and the truffles), we headed to a restaurant to enjoy a truffle lunch using the truffles we had found.
Last Thursday we went to Norcia to visit a new hotel (or more correctly a “historical residence”), Palazzo Seneca (www.palazzoseneca.com), that has just opened and which we had heard good things about. Right in the centre of Norcia it is an impressive place which has taken the local Bianconi family over a decade to restore. The style is clean and slightly minimalistic but it also has something of a gentleman’s club feel to it, right down to the inclusion of an impressive reading room.
While we were in Norcia we stopped in at the Vetusta Nursia chocolate shop (http://www.norciaciok.it). Vetusta Nursia have been making chocolate in Norcia for over 20 years. The owner explained how, unlike many other chocolate manufacturers, they use only the finest cocoa which makes for a tastier chocolate bar (albeit slightly more expensive -but as with most things -you get what you pay for). We bought a bar of 99% Cacao which I am looking forward to and a tub of delicious spreading chocolate (similar to Italy’s famous Nutella) to make merenda for our children. We will be back in Norcia next week on a tour and so might stop in again to stock up!
