The teams of the 13 Hours newspaper are now taking you to Italy, for the continuation of the series “The autumn harvests”. For this issue, Alban Mikoczy, journalist at France Télévisions, left to harvest white truffles from Alba, in the Piedmont region.
It is a rare and exceptional product, only the very fine sense of smell of an animal is able to detect its presence buried in the ground. Alban Mikoczy, journalist at France Télévisions, followed Jovanihunter truffles for 50 years. It is the smell of the dogs that decides the course and at one point, everything accelerates. The dogs dig, the freshness morning brought the smell of truffles to the surface. After a few seconds, Jovani indeed comes across a truffle and congratulates his dog: “It’s a beautiful truffle with a good scent. What we find underground is a secret, others should not know where we see truffle”.
Between the 4000 truffle masters, the competition is fierce, the best dogs are jealous, but after 50 years of work in this field, Jovani became a philosopher, some days are good and others much less. As for transactions, they are often done in secret. “The prices are expensive because there is no quantity. It’s my 27th season and it’s my worst “, testify Allesandro Bonino, commercial director at Tartufo Morra.