Truffle Hunting Holidays
the finest truffles fresh from ItalyGet the Experience with our truffle hunting holidays
Truffle Hunting, Cooking and Wine Tasting Weekend in Le Marche
A unique opportunity to savour the real truffle hunting experience with Europe's leading fresh truffle experts!
About your weekend in the Sibillini Mountains;
Friday - Get settled and straight into preparing a welcome dinner featuring fresh truffles.
You will be met at lunchtime at Ancoa Airport (other locations can be accommodated) and driven to your accommodation, a picturesque hotel situated in the centre of the historic town of San Ginesio. This hotel has recently reopened after an extensive refurbishment.
http://www.albergocentralesanginesio.com/
All bedrooms used for our Truffle Hunting Holidays are en suite, spacious and beautifully appointed.
Your arrival time at the hotel will be approximately 3:30pm.
Here you will meet your hostess for the weekend, Monica Santoleri, for a welcome drink and a quick settle in before adjourning to Monica’s restaurant Terra Nostra in the medieval hill town of San Ginesio. There a short introductory talk on the truffles of the region will be followed by a cookery lesson.
Experienced chef, Monica is passionate about her subject and will help you prepare a meal showcasing the truffles of the season. You will learn tips on how best to store, prepare and use fresh truffles. Dinner of your culinary creations will follow!
Saturday - Truffle hunting, second cookery school, gourmet lunch, tutored wine tasting and degustazione evening dinner.
Breakfast at the Hotel will be followed by a two hour excursion into the beautiful Sibillini Mountain National Park. There you will accompany our truffle hunter Nando and his dogs as they search for the elusive fungi.
Monica, will accompany you to answer any questions and provide information on what you are observing and also the fauna and flora (particularly the edible ones!) of the area. She will also be able to translate any questions you may have for Nando.
After truffle hunting you will again return to the kitchen at Terra Nostra and prepare a dish of fresh truffles and home made pasta. Followed by a lazy lunch with local wines before you return to your accommodation for a well earned rest!
Photo courtesy of Vicky Bennison; Monica Santoleri
Photo courtesy of Vicky Bennison; Fagottini with Truffles
Later in the afternoon you will reconvene in the dining room for a tutored wine tasting of a selection of the red and white DOC and DOCG wines of the Marche region. No Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon on the menu here ! We are talking Verdicchio, Pecorino, Passerina, Ribona, Vernaccia, Bianchello, Lacrima, Montepulciano and Sangiovese ! Led by our professional sommelier Domenico, you will sample some of the unique and fascinating varietals native to this beautiful terrain. These wines are made from a combination of ancient grapes and modern winemaking techniques.
The wine tasting will be followed by a transfer to local restaurant Le Logge in the beautiful hill town of Urbisaglia. Situated on the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Urbs Salvia this town is full of atmospheric charm and makes a fantastic setting for our celebration degustazione dinner showcasing the wonderful food of the Sibillini and mountains, especially the inimitable truffle!
Again, this dinner will be accompanied by some of Marche's top wines.
Sunday - Departure day.
Breakfast at the Hotel is followed by a return transfer to Ancona Airport.
Price Per Person
Euros € 590
Places are limited to a maximum of EIGHT people.
2012 Dates
Our truffle hunting holidays are booking up well in advance !
12-14 October 2012
26-28 October 2012
9-11 November 2012
23-24 November 2012
This tour is also available on request on other dates from October to January for a minimum of four people.
Included:
2 nights en-suite accommodation in Hotel Centrale, breakfast included
Truffle cooking lessons held in English, Friday and Saturday
Friday night dinner after the cooking lesson with selected regional wines, mineral water and coffee included
Truffle hunting experience with dogs (minimum of two hours)
Saturday lunch with selected regional wines, mineral water and coffee included
Tutored wine tasting (minimum 6 wines)
Saturday night dinner with selected regional wines, mineral water and coffee included
Truffle recipe cards in English for all the dishes you learn to cook (minimum 5)
Souvenir printed apron
Transfers and assistance on arrival and departure at Ancona airport (There are daily Ryanair flights from London Stansted to Ancona airport).
Italian English speaking gourmet guide to accompany you throughout
All local taxes
Not included:
Flight tickets
Transfers from locations other than Ancona airport, though these can be organised on request.
Personal expenses
Anything not specifically mentioned in the program
Book Now
Visit our online shop to book your truffle hunting holiday.
Pay Balance Now
Visit our online shop to pay the balance for your holiday.
Terms of payment and cancellation fees:
A 50% non refundable deposit is required at the time of booking all Truffle Hunting Holidays.
Payment of the remaining 50% is required 14 days prior to arrival.
In the event of a course not running due to insufficient numbers, course fees will be refunded in full.
Get the experience withour truffle hunting holidays!
Photo courtesy of Vicky Bennison
CUSTOMER AND PRESS REVIEWS
Recommended by the UK Telegraph, Food and Wine section;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8111011/Food-news-Truffle-hunting-weekends.html
My husband & I went to Le Marche for truffle hunting. We had a marvellous time. Fabulous experience.
Nothing was too much for trouble for Monica who hosted us, drove us, fed us and taught us how to cook !!
Went truffle hunting with Nando and We found truffles which was excellent and then cooked them and ate them...Delicious. Wine tasting was also good as was the last meal. Would love to go back and explore the very beautiful walled towns some more one day.Really enjoyed the whole experience. Thank you
Claire, Surrey
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves from beginning to end! We were met on time at the airport -Monica and Alessandro instantly made us feel very welcome. The accomodation was lovely, such beautiful views.People were very friendly too. Upon our arrival, as we had time to spare, Cary and I walked into town.
We were so lucky with the weather. Whilst in town we grabbed a cup of coffee in a local bar and were given a plate of small pieces of bread to try.
Later on Monica picked us up and took us to her Restaurant in town. Monica was a fantastic hostess!We can't believe she let Cary and I loose in her kitchen! We enjoyed the hands on cookery lessons and especially drinking a couple of glasses of champagne whilst doing so! We enjoyed
eating everything too - we have never eaten so much! We were so well looked after (bottle of red and white wine too). In the kitchen it was really nice meeting Monica's sister and cousin, even though there was little english spoken I had an added bonus on the tripas I was able to practice my Spanish on them. I found out later that Alessandro could speak Spanish, so I tried my Spanish chatter on him too.
The "Truffle Hunt" was a surreal experience! Something we will never forget. On route we experienced Nando racing his car alongside twodogs that were tending their sheep - it was hilarious. During the Hunt,when Nando was digging for atruffle and put his hands to his face,to our horror we thought he
had accidently poked a stick in his eye, little did we know at the time that he had unfortunately pierced through thetruffle - he was devastated! Then one of the dogs ate a small truffle a little later on this was funny for us too. But WOW, did the search forTrufflesbecome worthwhile -Nando dug up a whopper!! I
had the job of looking after it all the way back to the car. I also very reluctantly offered the Truffleback to Nando at the end of the hunt - I was unaware at the time that we were going use it in another cookery lesson at the restaurant with Monica!
After eating lots more at lunch time,Monica took us back to our accomodation for a well deserved rest, in fact it was so quiet we slept for two hours! I have neverslept in an afternoon before, it must have been all thelovely fresh air and exercise!!
To round off, the wine tasting in the evening was very interesting, we tried and enjoyed many different varieties of wine. We were then taken to a lovely restaurant, Monica helped us through themenuand was again a brilliant hostess!
Finally, Alessandro promptly turned up in the morning for our return journey to the airport.
We are so pleased we booked it! What more can we say!! Made our 25th Wedding Anniversay celebration special.
Whilst writing we would like to wish you all success for the future.
Debbie, Essex
Just wanted to say what an excellent experience we had on our truffle-hunting weekend. Monica was absolutely lovely – she and Allesandro just couldn’t do enough for us all. Specifically for us, with our delayed return flight, Monica collected us from the hotel and we had a lovely leisurely lunch at her restaurant, and then Allesandro offered to take us to Loreto on the way back to the airport, so we actually had a pleasant day rather than it being a drag..........So full marks for the experience and arrangements and a huge thank-you to Monica and Allesandro (and other members of Monica’s family who were involved in the kitchen and restaurant) Without Monica it couldn’t possibly have been such a success.
We still can’t work out how to explain to anyone what truffles smell or taste like – it’s so special – so we’ll simply tell our friends to go and find out for themselves !
Many thanks
K & J
hi nigel we both had a fabulous w/end. monica is a delightful hostess and nothing too much bother.........the 6 of us got on so well like we had always known each other. can't fault the beautiful food, ambience, wine tasting, weather perfect etc. ..............loved going out with the dogs..........best wishes and our thanks to all concerned. molto bene.
lizzie
In short it was brilliant thanks very much!
Everybody including fellow guest were superb!
The food wonderful and especially Monica, her husband Ali, cousin, sisters, daughters etc were faultless, what a lovely family!
Nothing needed to be improved just wish I could've coooked in that kitchen for 6 months, they did invite for a Summer season!
Cheers,
Al
My husband and I had a wonderful weekend in le Marche. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay.
The truffle hunt was a great experience, the cooking course was great fun, the wine tasting was very well organised, the food was amazing, but most of all, we really fell in love with Monica and her family. Such genuine people, and Monica was a great tour guide.
I have already recommended this weekend trip to all our friends and colleagues, and I'm definitely going to take my parents there the next time they come over and visit us from Australia.
The only thing I would suggest is to organise the accommodation closer to Monica's restaurant as the square is so beautiful and we could have enjoyed nicer walks around the area.
Thank you.
Angela
e thoroughly enjoyed ourselves from beginning to end!
We were meton timeat the airport -Monica and Alessandro instantly
made us feel very welcome.
The accomodation was lovely, such beautiful views.People were very
friendly too.
Upon our arrival, as we had time to spare, Cary and I walked into town.
We were so lucky with the weather. Whilst in town we grabbed a cup
of coffee in a local bar and were given a plate of small pieces of bread to
try.
Later on Monica picked us up and took us to her Restaurant in town.
Monica was a fantastic hostess!We can't believeshe let Cary and I loose
in her kitchen! We enjoyed the hands on cookery lessons and especially
drinking a couple of glasses of champagne whilst doing so! We enjoyed
eating everything too - we have never eaten so much! We were so well
looked after (bottle of red and white wine too). In the kitchen it was really
nice meeting Monica's sister and cousin, even though there was little english
spoken I had an added bonus on the tripas I was able to practice my Spanish
on them. I found out later that Alessandro could speak Spanish, so I tried my
Spanish chatter on him too.
The "Truffle Hunt" was a surreal experience!Something we will never forget.
On route we experienced Nando racing his car alongside twodogs that were
tending their sheep - it was hilarious. During the Hunt,when Nando was
digging for atruffle and put his hands to his face,to our horror we thought he
had accidently poked a stick in his eye, little didwe know at the time that he
had unfortunately pierced through thetruffle - he was devastated! Then one of
the dogsate asmalltruffle a little later on thiswas funny for us too. But WOW,
did the search forTrufflesbecome worthwhile -Nando dug up a whopper!! I
had the job of looking after it all the way back to the car. I also very reluctantly
offeredthe Truffleback to Nando at the end of the hunt - I was unaware at the
time that we were going use it in another cookery lesson at the restaurant with
Monica!
After eating lots more at lunch time,Monica took us back to our accomodation
for a well deserved rest, in fact it was so quiet we slept for two hours!I have
neverslept in an afternoon before, it must have been all thelovely fresh air and
exercise!!
To round off, the wine tasting in the evening was very interesting, we tried
and enjoyed many different varieties of wine. We were then taken to a lovely
restaurant, Monica helped us through themenuand was again a brilliant
hostess!
Finally, Alessandro promptly turned up in the morning for our return journey
to the airport.
We are so pleased we booked it! What more can we say!! Made our
25th Wedding Anniversay celebration special.
Whilst writing we would like to wish you all success for the future.
Kind Regards
Debbie
.jpg)
