The Truffle
Acqualagna - a town of 4,000 inhabitants near Gola del Furlo, in the province of Pesaro-Urbino - is characterized by a centuries-old tradition of truffle search, production, and marketing. It is nowadays the seat of harvesters and traders working on the worldwide market. The truffle market of Acqualagna is considered as the privileged seat of wholesale trade: here, about the 2/3 of the whole national production (about 5-600 quintals of all varieties of truffle) are produced. The Countries where there is more demand are Germany (the most important European consumer), Belgium, Holland, France (which produces great quantities of black truffle in the Midi), USA, and Canada.
The peculiarity of Acqualagna is that it is possible to harvest and market truffle all the year long.
Truffle seems to like contrasts and seasons characterized by sudden temperature changes and the dry/wet alternation: as a matter of fact, they are the most favorable ones for its production. For this reason, according to our grandparents' ancient theories and proverbs "water, thunderbolts, and heat together in the earth" mean a good season for this product.
