Tuesday was the day I had looked forward to for several months. This was the day that I scheduled to go on a truffle hunt in the hill town of Motovun. When I arrived at the truffle tour place (named Miro-Tartufi) I was welcomed by the friendliest women, Marijana. I instantly felt like I was part of her family. Her husband, Miro arrived shortly thereafter. He is originally from Italy. As it turned out, I was the only person on the tour at that time so I had a very unique one-on-one experience. Marijana explained to me that her children travel a lot and they begged her as a business woman to not cancel reservations when only one person arrives because it is very difficult for solo travelers to get to experience things because most places require two or more people to book a reservation. For this, I was grateful.
Since it had rained all night, Marijana insisted that I wear her shoes on the hunt despite the fact that I had suitable water shoes with me. Such a nice gesture. Miro loaded up the dogs and we drove to the forest about 10 minutes away.
Once we arrived at the forest I got to meet the dogs for the first time. Bella is some sort of beagle mix and was about four years old. Nera is a mixed breed and only 1 ½ years old and still learning the ropes. When the dogs got out of the car they ran around like crazy dogs for the first 30 minutes expending all of their energy.
Nera still doesn’t quite understand what her job is but Bella went straight to work as soon as Miro told her to start searching.
Within 10 minutes of her hunting around she found the first truffle which was quite large and smelled so delicious. We traveled on for another 15 minutes or so and Bella found the second truffle which was about 1/3 of the size of the first one and wasn’t nearly as aromatic as the first one.
Since it was just me, we decided that two truffles was definitely enough so we got back in the car and headed back to the house.
When we arrived back, Marijana had prepared a wonderful first course which 
included fresh cheeses, salami, and bruschetta with three different types of truffle spreads. She served the first course with homemade brandy made with 14 herbs as well as some fruit infused water which included elderberry since she found some on a stroll the day prior. 
As I snacked on the first course she told me a little about herself and how the company came to exist. They have been in business for 27 years. She used to be a nurse and Miro a mechanic. Both were tired of working the hard life so they decided to start the business right after the war.
After the first course, she then prepared the main dish of scrambled eggs using the truffles we found on the hunt. The preparation was so simple but the result was devine. The meal ended with a chocolate cake drizzled with honey and some finely shaved truffles on top.
Motovun is postcard-perfect looking. It reminded me a lot of Napa/Sonoma. It sits high above the wine region with a beautiful church. The morning I was there, there was a fog hovering all over the valley. All I could think of was how that fog was feeding the grapes and olives for this year’s harvest.
When I first arrived at the top of the hill, I parked near a cemetery. It was such a peaceful place. I’d imagine everyone would want to be buried there.
Motovun is one of those towns where you feel like you are walking up hill both ways. So, given my efforts, I was sad to see that it had become quite commercialized and touristy. It started to rain while I was at the top so I decided to have a light lunch to wait out the rain. After the rain cleared I got back in my car and headed to the wine region of the town.
I visited two wineries which could not have been more different. One was very modern and trendy (Koslovich) and the other was the oldest one in the region (Kabola); dating back to 1891.