Rovinj

Rovinj in Istria is considered one of the most beautiful towns in Croatia. It is located on the western side of the Istrian peninsula and is one of 14 islands making up a rugged archipelago with and six distinct cliffs. 

It, along with Dubrovnik, is one of the two the most visited tourist destinations in Croatia. For several years in a row Rovinj reached the Croatian record of 3 million overnight stays during the summer season. This morning we had a much slower pace, rambling through the old town, relaxing a bit in the sun at our beautiful hotel before leaving to go truffle hunting!

While in Istria - go on a truffle hunt!  

Istria truffles wer disovered in the Motovun Forest about 80 years ago.  Truffles are the “fruit” of fungi that live in mutually beneficial symbioses with the roots of host trees. The truffle fungus explores the soil for water and mineral nutrients, which it passes along to the tree. In exchange, the tree provides sugars produced through photosynthesis to the fungus. Although they can grow on other tree roots, the main trees with truffles on their roots in Istria are the hazelnut, birch and oak. 

There are black truffles (a bit stronger) and white truffles. The Istrian white truffle (more rare) ripens between September and January and the black truffles (more intense flavor) ripen in summer and winter.

The history of these Istrian truffles is interesting. Italians from Alba heard that Croatians were feeding stinky potatoes to their pigs and began trading them for Italian foodstuffs they couldn’t get under the then-socialist economy of Yugoslavia.  The Istrians got Italian food products, and the Italians spirited prized white truffles back across the border. This went on for decades.

So, Truffles from Alba were actually from Istria. There was little motivation for Istrians to market their region as a truffle paradise because hunters were being comfortably compensated by the Italians (later the foodstuff trade evolved to actual money).

However, in 1999 a giant truffle was found in Istria. Instead of selling it for thousands of dollars, they made a huge dinner for locals. But they also invited members of the press and even the president of Croatia.  As a result, the discovery and subsequent dinner got a lot of attention. Suddenly the secret was out: Istria would be added to the extremely short list of places where one can unearth white truffles. Today, in addition to the guided truffle hunting tours, Istria restaurant menus are sprinkled with truffle-loaded dishes and gourmet shops sell truffles and truffle-spiked food products.

For our truffle hunting experience we were pickedup up from our hotel and driven for 90 minutes to the Motovun Forest.  Once there we were taken on a short hunt by one of the third-generation hunters and processors of truffles.   Only the most experienced dogs or domestic pigs are capable of sniffing out this potent subterranean fungus as the smell is only detectable when they are ripe. Our hunt was assisted by dogs and we did actually find a truffle.  After the hunt we were treated to a scrammbled egg and truffle dinner by our hosts and toured their small facility to purchase the truffles and truffle products that they sell both domestically and abroad.