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Italy
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Lombardy
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Province of Como
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Bellagio
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PRIVATE HUNTING OF TRUFFLE AND MUSHROOMS WITH CHEF LUIGI GANDOLA IN BELLAGIO
4 h
Private
About this activity
Super exciting experience in Lake Como on the mountain on top of Bellagio, about 40 miles north of Milano : you can go picking mushrooms or truffle hunting with Chef Luigi and his secret truffle hunters and his dog. Truffle and Mushrooms grow on the private land of family Gandola with the amazing view on the beautiful Lake Como.
Black summer truffle found in the woods around Bellagio is a kind of underground fungus belonging to the Tuberaceae family, in the Ascomycota division. Truffles grow naturally in the ground in a symbiotic, mycorrhizal relation- ship with the roots of certain trees and shrubs, particularly oak, hazel, lime, hornbeam, etc. The truffle e is commonly thought to be the only fruiting body to be found with the help of dogs and harvested by hand. The truffle is an extremely valuable food that is highly sought after and very expensive.
After the hunt, you will return to Salice Blu restaurant and in the kitchen you can learn how wash and preserve truffles and mushrooms. Then Chef Luigi Gandola personally cooks for you a salad with your mushrooms and zucchini, truffle risotto in combination with home made tagliolini and an amazing local dessert, all served with local (Italian) wine. Details Available any day from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM on request for a minimum of 2 people, weather permitting, from March-December. Comfortable clothes and shoes recommended. Pick up in Bellagio town directly from chef Luigi and his team.
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Black summer truffle found in the woods around Bellagio is a kind of underground fungus belonging to the Tuberaceae family, in the Ascomycota division. Truffles grow naturally in the ground in a symbiotic, mycorrhizal relation- ship with the roots of certain trees and shrubs, particularly oak, hazel, lime, hornbeam, etc. The truffle e is commonly thought to be the only fruiting body to be found with the help of dogs and harvested by hand. The truffle is an extremely valuable food that is highly sought after and very expensive.
After the hunt, you will return to Salice Blu restaurant and in the kitchen you can learn how wash and preserve truffles and mushrooms. Then Chef Luigi Gandola personally cooks for you a salad with your mushrooms and zucchini, truffle risotto in combination with home made tagliolini and an amazing local dessert, all served with local (Italian) wine. Details Available any day from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM on request for a minimum of 2 people, weather permitting, from March-December. Comfortable clothes and shoes recommended. Pick up in Bellagio town directly from chef Luigi and his team.
Included
- Hotel pickup (selected hotels only) in Bellagio
- Port pickup car ferry 10:00 am in the morning
- Lunch
- Snacks
- Bottled water
- Coffee and/or Tea
- Alcoholic Beverages
Not included
- For all info contact Chef Luigi at +39 3398343067
Additional
- Confirmation will be received within 48 hours of booking, subject to availability
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- Infant meals not included
- Minimum drinking age is 18 years
- Dress code is formal
- This is a private tour/activity. Only your group will participate
Features
Tourism
90%
Cultural
75%
Original
20%
Reviews
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On Friday, May 24, 2019, I took your Private Hunting of Truffle and Mushrooms with Chef Luigi Gandola in Bellagio. Hunting for truffles has been on my bucket list for years so I was very excited to take this tour. It was the only reason that I signed up. Luigi picked me up at 10 am along with four other people and drove us to his restaurant where we started with a tour of his gardens. ( The tour description said that we would hunt truffles and mushrooms first and then have lunch prepared by Luigi, but he had already been out to the woods early that morning and brought back several porcini mushrooms - no truffles ). Then we had a cooking class where we learned to make pasta and a few other Italian dishes. This took a few hours and then the five of us sat at a table out on the patio and waited for lunch to be served. By the time we finished it was 2pm, and I'm thinking "when are we going to hunt truffles?" Apparently, the other four people had signed up for a cooking class only, which left me to hunt alone. It was already late and I was wondering what was going to happen next. Luigi drove them back to their hotels, leaving me at the restaurant to wait for his return. I had told him that I needed to be back to my car by 4 pm to pay more money at the meter so that I wouldn't get a ticket. He returned and I sat waiting. As it turned out he was digging up dirt with a backhoe, loading it into an old farm truck! I didn't pay for this part! FINALLY, around 3pm, Luigi, his assistant Paolo and I climbed into this 35 year old junky farm truck filled with tools and tool boxes and headed for the woods on Luigi's family property. First, we collected eggs from the chickens, stopped by his sister's home on the property and THEN went to the woods. The terrain was so very steep that most times I couldn't stand or walk without holding onto trees and my mind was more on staying upright than looking for mushrooms. Paolo had to grab me a few times to keep me from sliding down the hill!! I am an active, 71 year old woman, but this was not fun! I finally got back to my car around 4:15 pm after a disappointing day with no truffles. Luigi told us that this wasn't a good time for them to be found. This tour should not have been advertised as a 'truffle hunting' adventure when there were none to be found. I shouldn't have had to ride in a junky old truck alone with two men and spend six hours of my day doing something that I paid a LOT of money