After visiting Assisi, our group ventured towards Trevi to a farm in San Pietro a Pettine. An old country farmhouse has had part of the building converted into a restaurant, La Cucina, featuring local truffles. But, before dinner, we went truffle hunting with Bruno and his amazing dogs, Puci and Enea. We walked into the countryside with its beautiful oak trees and watched the dogs seek out black truffles among the trees. Bruno then dug them up and quickly got them out of reach of the dogs (I think one dog still managed to snarf down one of the truffles). Bruno rewarded their efforts with tortellini. Black truffles were running about $95/ounce when we were in Italy, so the truffles these dogs found were quite valuable!
Accompanying its ancient country home, the farm also has a small church with stunningly-colored frescoes dating to the 14th Century. We sat in the church for a brief presentation prior to the truffle hunt. [NOTE: The plexiglass chairs do not appear to date from that same period.]
After our successful truffle hunt, we went into the farmhouse for a delicious dinner featuring truffles (harvested on the farm) in every dish. I was too busy enjoying conversing with our fellow travelers and the amazing meal to take any photos. We were seated in a private room and our serving staff were excellent! I highly recommend La Cucina!
After dinner, we took in some breathtaking views of the sunset in the valley between Assisi and Spoleto before we heading downhill to the bus. On the ride back to Montefalco, we all got to try our best out-of-tune voices singing along with Dean Martin on songs such as Volare. Poor Mauro has to put up with our caterwauling! At least it was not a long drive so he did not have to suffer very long!
After dinner, we took in some breathtaking views of the sunset in the valley between Assisi and Spoleto before we heading downhill to the bus. On the ride back to Montefalco, we all got to try our best out-of-tune voices singing along with Dean Martin on songs such as Volare. Poor Mauro has to put up with our caterwauling! At least it was not a long drive so he did not have to suffer very long!