Day 6 - Truffles Anyone?

 We are off by bus to visit a truffle farm.  The farm has been in the same family for a couple of generations.  There are 4 people who work the farm along with their two golden retrievers.  The owner also trains other dogs for truffle hunting . 

They get a dog at 9 weeks old.  The first thing they do is give it a taste of truffle so that they learn the smell.  They continue to present the truffle smell and give them a biscuit treat.  This is how the dogs learn to find the truffles - they search for the smell.  The dog digs in the area and the farmer uses a tool to finish finding the truffle.  The dog then gets his biscuit.

There are different types of truffles, white ones in the summer, and black ones in the winter.  There is a whole process that is involved before the truffle is ready to be eaten.  I’m not even going to try and explain it all.  The truffles the dogs found are small since it is the end of the season.  However, they can grow quite large.

We went inside the farmhouse to warm up and also do some truffle tasting.  We tasted some of the fresh truffles on bread, as well as, some bread with truffle oil.  Both were fantastic.  Of course there was time for a purchasing opportunity - truffles that had been preserved as well as truffle oil.  

Back on the bus to head back to the ship.  After lunch there was a Macaron demonstration.  Lynda got a chance to try and make some.  Not as easy as it looks.  Also, very nerve racking with everyone watching.

Dinner pictures can’t come close to the variety of tastes.  Plus one of the appetizers from lunch. 

Plus two miscellaneous pictures - our long hallway we are way down almost to the end in room 329. Plus a must have -  a lanyard to hold your room  keycard.  You need this when you get off the ship as well as to get into your room.

Cheers

T and T