Daniele Angeli’s lifelong passion for all things truffle-related started when he was a child exploring the forests of the mythical Sibillini mountains in central Italy’s Umbria and Marche regions.

As a nine-year-old, with his brother he began training puppies to become truffle dogs, and started planting a 900-tree truffle farm in Umbria, an impressive forward-thinking 20-year project for a youngster of that age. He went truffle hunting in the mountain forests with his dog Mora, then took his harvest in brown paper bags around to local truffle buyers, seeking out the best price for his precious wares.

It was a hands-on apprenticeship that continued through his teens into adulthood, his horizons continually expanding in both area and scope, and it has turned him into a veritable expert of the Italian truffle industry.

Enter Cristine Del Bene, Daniele’s partner – American-born with a keen sense for life’s finer things, not least the table – and now he is living that childhood passion as his full-time mission for La Cerqua.
Between the two of them, they have set the bar high, pusuing standards of excellence across the board that they are unyielding in sticking to. After all, it is truffles we’re talking about here…