The truffle aura is something you could say I figured out today. We walked in the forest brush, it is dense yet manageable. Down the hillside it is steep and not too wet. There are no signs of any truffles or mushrooms in this location. The hunter seems to be taking us on a walk, instead of a hunt.

All of a sudden, he grinds his teeth and snorts a gargles noise signalling the dog to work. He runs off, the hunter call out, “Poopee” and the dog is digging beside a dried up river bed.The angle is strange and seems awkward.

Yes the position is awkward and the hunter cannot get into the right position to dig. The dog seems to be in his way, so he pushes him aside and gets down into the dirt. He seems disappointed but more distracted by us.

The truffle hunter gets up, raises his stick, which has a small-sized shovel on the tip; it is the size of a forefinger. The soil, he says, “smell it” raising it to my nose. My daughter smells it first, and acknowledges the intense aroma. The soil has a truffle odor very distinctive of white truffles. I begin to realize that the ground has tremendous energy to trap the truffle’s gasses, hence the truffle aura.