White truffle season officially opened on Wednesday and the esteemed and extremely expensive delicacy can be dug up until the end of the year.
The white truffle is rarer, more pungent and digestible than the black one and its price runs between 2,000 to 2,500 euros a kilo for truffles weighing less than 20 grams. They can grow to be over a kilo in weight.
Last year the white truffles were so scarce that their price doubled to 4,000 euros here in the eastern Marche region, while those gathered near the northwestern city of Alba, considered the best, fetched as much as 7,500 euros a kilo.
Because of the hot and dry summer the initial finds are not expected to be plentiful, but trifoleaux (truffle experts) said their numbers should multiply in the coming weeks thanks to recent rainfall.
The white truffle season opened with around 1,000 hunters heading out to the forests to seek humidity-loving tubers which nestle in the roots of about 50 trees - mostly oaks but also hazels, poplars, mulberries and willows - and are rooted out by specially trained dogs.
In the meantime, Acqualagna is preparing for the 43rd edition of its National White Truffle Fair, which will open October 28 and continue on November 1, 2. 8 and 9.
With demand shooting up over recent years, truffle hunters have become increasingly competitive and there have even been reports of skulduggery and turf wars between hunters in prized woods.
Once in Arezzo twelve valuable truffle dogs were poisoned after eating the luncheon meat laced with strychnine.
Truffle dogs are valued at as much as 3,000 euros depending on their ability to sniff out truffles.
Since that incident security has been stepped up around truffle dogs and there have been no more reported fatalities.
