Our excitement was almost tangible. We clustered around our Italian leader, Saverio, jostling for space to see him prod his sharp stick into the earth where his dog had frantically pawed only moments before. Then, with gnarled hands, he removed the excess soil and held out his prize.

It was a small, shrivelled, dark thing, not much larger than a pebble. No matter - I held it to my nose and filled my nostrils with the fresh aroma of truffle mingled with newly dug earth.

But my two-year-old son, Christian, was not impressed. With all the excitement from the group of 20 or so adults and children on this truffle hunt, he must have thought that our treasure was at least as good as chocolate.

But you try explaining to a two-year-old the subtleties of flavour in something that he probably won't like the taste of for another 15 years.

Truffle hunting in Italy

Italian truffles stimulate taste buds and epic prices. Anthony Capella picks up the scent in Piedmont

BACKGROUND

• Truffle hunting in France

• Southwest France's best truffles

• 14 tasty cookery courses

• Honey, mushrooms and fishing Britain

• Four classic food adventures

Related Links

• Truffle hunting in France

• 14 tasty cookery courses

Truffle hunting for toddlers was one of those quirky ideas that had seemed good at the time. Why wouldn't it work when all the basic ingredients were there, including a dog to stroke (for the children) and a saliva-inducing truffle-tasting session at the end (for the adults), all packaged in one bracing winter's walk?

It had started well. As the fog lingered in the valleys of Umbria, leaving little mysterious-looking islands of stone houses on the highest ground, we had set off for our open-air treasure hunt. Although it was November there was barely a chill coming in over the hills, where trees were turning a hundred shades of brown.

Children gambolled in the undergrowth and the dog raced off to dig frantically among the roots of the hazelnut trees, where the truffles live in symbiotic harmony.

But after that first find the children's interest waned quickly and I was soon carrying one bored, cold, heavy son around the woods, dodging the branches as we went. Very soon I, too, was flagging - the first truffle had been interesting but, as Saverio's bag filled (and he kept very careful tabs on every truffle that was passed round), it almost seemed too easy in this specially fenced off truffle-filled forest.

So I was relieved when we took our haul, which weighed in at 230g, inside the buildings of Tartufi Bianconi for something much more interesting - the tasting. It seems that there is a truffle for all seasons, from the spring white, worth up to €5,000 a kilo, to the summer black.

“Do you see this one?” Saverio asked, holding up a nugget of white truffle. “It's worth €450.” Naturally, we adults gorged ourselves on slivers of them all, trying to discern the differences, submerging our tastebuds in the garlicky, nutty, mushroomy flavour.

But again the children were disappointed, wrinkling their noses at the pungent mouthfuls that they were offered. So we bore our starving offspring back to our base, an 18th-century stone manor house on the UmbrianTuscan border called Villa Pia. There, in the courtyard, we devoured the most amazing bean soup, three pasta dishes, aubergine parmesan, quiche, plus cold cuts and cheese. I was beginning to wish I hadn't eaten so much truffle ...

Villa Pia is idyllic. First the food. Then the setting; an artist's dream of rolling hills and cypress trees just two minutes' walk from the village of Lippiano, with its fairytale castle. But perhaps most important is the easy, laidback, house party feel of it all - a parent's dream.

Times recommends

• Oasis of the Seas: the Times review
• The 20 best new year party places to stay
• Green Spaces 2009: are you the winning writer?