During four weeks, starting from middle November (exactly on November 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 and 29, and December 5 and 6 2015), the 45th San Miniato National Market Festival of the White Truffle will be held in the town near Pisa.
The white truffle of the Pisan Hills, a geographical area extending toward the inner part of the Pisan countryside, is the Tuber Magnatum Pico, the food of kings, the most precious and celebrated underground fungus in the world, found with the greatest care just a few inches underground, and only in a very limited number of areas all around the world. The fungus cannot be cultivated by man; only a lucky combination of forest vegetation and geological substratum can cause it to grow naturally in these few areas.
Brillat Savarin wrote: “truffles can make women tenderer and men milder”.
Among those areas so blessed by nature for white truffles, San Miniato is one of the most celebrated, and holds various records for it.
The ancient historical centre of town, with its narrow alleys and picturesque little squares, becomes in these days the greatest open air lab of tastes and flavours in Italy, where gourmets and simple visitors can meet to enjoy the very best products of oenology and gastronomy, not only truffles.
At the court of King White Truffle there are famous courtiers, such as the red wines (also Chianti) from the San Miniato vineyards, the extra-virgin olive oil of these lands, delicious cold cuts, typical sweets and cakes, local cheeses, and other excellent products of the nearby hills.
And more than 120 producers and exhibitors will present the very best products from this area and the whole of Tuscany at their stands.
Moreover, in the beautiful Piazza del Seminario, you will find the Officina del Tartufo, the White Truffle Workshop, with renowned Italian and foreign chefs cooking their best truffles recipes on the spot.
But the San Miniato National Market Festival is but the acme of this extraordinary seasonal offer devoted to truffles. On the hills around, in the very heart of the land where truffles are found, among forests and fields, more intimate, small fairs take place. In the small “borghi”, the oldest dynasties of truffle-hunters offer their treasures in advance. An autumn you cannot miss!