You'll enjoy some hours walking through typical woods, picking truffles along with a special guide, also an expert, but mostly a friend who will teach how to find truffles with the dog.
Hunt for rare truffles in the forest of Tuscany, and then enjoy your treasures in a decadent meal. After lunch, travel to the hills to experience the famous red wine of Tuscany.
The program starts at Fattoria Collebrunacchi, where you will meet Francesca, our truffle hunter. A group is always a small group of up to 12 attendees. Francesca will explain the tricks and secrets of truffle hunting and how she trained her dog, Cioco. The stroll in the forest is an easy walk, but it requires that you have regular mobility. After the walk, we will go back to Francesca's house for a delicious lunch based on fresh truffles, which typically include:
Truffle appetizers, pasta topped with shaved truffles (Tagliolini al Tartufo), and dessert including Vin Santo wine. Francesca Farm also produces some excellent red and white wines, so during lunch, you could have a delicious match with them.
The Francesca's farm is also an ideal place for your purchases of truffles, here you will find quality and great value!
This program operates at San Miniato Tuscany, which is only 45 min. Drive from Florence.
We suggest taking a train from Florence to San Miniato for people who stand in Florence. It starts every 60 minutes from Florence and stops at San Miniato train station. The ride is about 40 minutes, and a round trip costs approximately € 11 per person. Please check the timetable here
Time Table:
- Departure from Florence Santa Maria Novella at 9.53 a.m.
- Arriving at San Miniato- Fucecchio at 10.33 a.m.
Once at San Miniato train station, you can take a taxi. Antonio, the local taxi driver, already knows how to take you to us.
A taxi ride from San Miniato train station to the place costs € 25 for up to 3 passengers, which must be paid in cash to the taxi driver.
The train is unavailable on Sundays so that we will run the truffle hunting at Bagno a Ripoli, only a 20-minute drive from Florence.
If you prefer not to drive, we can book you a car/minivan with a personal chauffeur. The cost is € 250 for up to 3 people and € 300 for up to 8 people. Please specify this in the booking form.
Dear Francesca Last season, the truffle hunt with Chocolat was a wonderful experience. Falconry and cormorant fishing were fun, but the catch was the exceptional white truffle! I will never forget the wine and truffle dishes at the San Miniato villa, so I hope to visit again this year.
Such a wonderful experience! When we booked our 3-week trip to Italy, we realized October was mushroom season. We found Francesca's tour online, and booked the truffle hunt experience with lunch/tasting menu. This family-run business provides boots and rain jackets for the woodland walk portion of the experience - much appreciated as it was lightly raining the day of our tour, and rather muddy. Almost immediately, Francesca's dog, Levante, located several truffles, and Francesca showed how she gently retrieves them. The smell of a white truffle fresh from the ground is AMAZING! Afterwards, we were welcomed into the family's home for a multi-course meal - each one featuring truffle, and paired with wine. We shared this experience with couples from all over the world, exchanging travel adventures and culture. Travel at its best!
A sensational experience from start to finish. Francesca was a wonderful host explaining about truffles, truffle hunting, the dogs, her land and history. Loved the walk on her land to find the truffles of which we found handfuls. And the meal and wine back at her villa was extraordinary. And her puppy Lunar was delightful. A must do!!!
The truffle hunt with Francesca and Choco was great, the estate was beautiful and the food after was delicious! Would highly recommend and hope to come back next time I am in Italy.
Wonderful truffle hunt tour followed by truffle lunch! Our family all had a fun time in this tour. This is a shared tour with other families but it was fun getting to know other families from around the globe. We were served coffee at the beautiful farm house before the tours started. We then went into the forest to look for truffles, we got around 200+ grams of truffles! Although we did not get to eat or bring our truffles home, the truffle lunch immediately followed the tour was really yummy and home cooked by the family. It was a really fun experience!
Francesca and Hilary were both amazing guides! The estate was beautiful and it was a really fun adventure. The food was a bonus and delicious ???? definetly worth the money!
We had a fantastic walk through the woods with Choco and it was eye opening to chat with Francesca about and see the process for truffle hunting. The walk was followed by an amazing truffle meal paired with delicious wines from their own winery. Amazing experience all around.
Francesca and her team were absolutely wonderful. She was easy to communicate with, and she helped us organize all transport and timing. The launch point for the hunt is her lovely mansion dating from the 1400s that has been in her family for many generations. The truffle hunt itself was great - a nice walk through the woods while Francesca gave us the history of truffles, how to find them, and their seasons and answered our many questions with good humor and charisma. Then we returned to the home for a delicious meal - one we all agreed was the top three of our 10-day trip in Italy - that not only had truffles from her property, but estate olive oil and wine produced there as well. All delicious. Totally worth it for my two 78-year-old parents, myself (50), and my 10-year-old boys. Thanks, Francesca!
This went above and beyond my expectations. We went hiking through the woods with the dog and it was fun finding all the truffles. Then we went back to the house and had an excellent three-course meal centered around truffles. A few glasses of wine were included too. I really liked the social aspect of it. Would highly recommend it!