Prized white truffle show sees record breakers

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 2 - Italy's Prized White Truffle Show at Città di Castello in Umbria saw some record breakers ahead of its November 2-5 run in its 43rd edition this year.
    Just before the curtain went up, truffle experts named some huge recent finds: "Numero uno", an exceptional white truffle weighing in at 1 kg and 40 grammes; "Triplete", a three-foiled exemplar weighing 1 kg and 340 grammes; and "Jimmy", an extremely fine 919 gramme find presented by Andrea e Silvia Cecchini with the nickname of their father Giovannino Cecchini, a historic truffle entrepreneur who died two years ago.
    A 'record' black truffle weighing 1.79 kg was found recently by truffle hound Pepe near the source of the Tiber in Umbria recently.
    The valuable tuber was the biggest ever discovered by Romolo Lazzari, 79, in more than 50 years of hunting the delicacy.
    The find was made in the woods near Citta' di Castello, an Umbrian town known for its museum housing works by Raphael, Luca Signorelli, Andrea della Robbia, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and others.
    In December 2021 Italian truffle hunting made it onto the UNESCO list of the world's intangible cultural heritage.
    The art of truffle hunting, farmers group Coldiretti said, involves a network of around 73,600 practictioners, called 'tartufai', organised into 45 groups in a national federation ranging from 44,000 individual tartufai to 20,000 'free searchers'.
    Truffle hunting joined Sicilian puppetry (2008), Tenor singing (2000), the Med diet (2010), Cremonese violin making (2012), processional shoulder-borne machines (2013) and Neapolitan pizza makers (2017) on the UNESCO roll of honour.
    Other Italian treasures to be so honoured include falconry, dry-stone walling, the Prosecco Hills, and the beech woods of Aspromonte, the farmers' group said.
    Gastronomes and enthusiasts of the prized and pungent fungus known as the white truffle had a particularly great season two years ago with prices rising to record levels due to a COVID-linked scarcity.
    The most prestigious truffles are found mostly in the Piedmont region near the town of Alba, where a yearly fair celebrating and auctioning the culinary treasure takes place.
    White truffles are more pungent, rare and expensive than black ones, which have a longer growing season and are more common in the center and south of Italy.
    Last November the annual World Truffle Auction at the Grinzane Cavour castle outside of Alba once again attracted tycoons from all over the world to contend for the most valued tubers on the market that season.
    Nestling in the roots of about 50 trees - mostly oaks but also hazels, poplars, mulberries and willows - truffles are rooted out by specially trained dogs.
    With demand shooting up over recent years, hunters have become increasingly competitive and there have even been reports of skulduggery such as hamstringing or even poisoning the champion dogs of rivals. (ANSA).