Slice of Truffle - San Miniato White Truffle Festival

There are several reasons why late October and early November is one of my favorite times of year to visit Italy. One of those main reasons is the White Truffle Festival of San Miniato. San Miniato is located between Florence and Pisa and each weekend in November hosts visitors from all over to sample everything "tartufo". 

I decided to grab some girlfriends and go explore the festival this past Sunday. The day began with some dark omens causing me to question the original decision to make this adventure. But in the end, we made it safely to the party and had a blast.

Our little foursome was made up of a few of my favorite people in Florence. Nancy was my first roommate, Nardia a constant friend over the years, and Maureen is my California pal whose path I manage to cross on both sides of the ocean. We arrived to the festival in a white chariot….ahem…the white van of Ari, sweet San Miniato local who offered to give us a lift to the top of the hill. Once on the streets of San Miniato, there was no stopping us.

Maureen, Nardia, Nancy

Rodolfo and Leonardo

The small town is jam packed with booths and tents all dedicated to the white truffle. You see stall after stall with goodies from whole truffles to truffle pasta, jars of truffle honey, truffle sausage and truffle gorgonzola. We even sampled truffle beer that we meant to go back for but ended up forgetting about after 4 hours and 4 bottles of wine. Oops.

We had a ball perusing the various vendors and sampling the goods. I stocked up on some Christmas gifts to bring home for family and friends. But more than anything else, I think we had the best time with our mascot, little Rodolfo (Rudolph in English). Nancy found him at the first stall we saw when we arrived, and Rodolfo spent the entire day posing for pictures with the vendors and sampling the goods. San Miniato is a gorgeous little town and the truffle festival is nothing but fun. If you find yourself in Italy in November, try to fit in a little tartufo fun. Here are some helpful hints on navigating the festival: It runs every weekend in November. You can easily reach San Miniato by train  – from Florence it's 45 minutes and 5,20 euro each way. If you go on a Sunday, be prepared to call a taxi to take you from the train station to the festival shuttle. Fridays and Saturday have shuttles running from the train station. Go with an empty belly as you can sample and splurge on truffles, pasta, bread and wine throughout the day. If you take a mascot and introduce him to the vendors, they will apparently love you forever. :)

View the San Miniato photo album here!