Truffle Season in Tuscany: The Calendar, Month by Month

Harvest Windows Under Regional Law 36/2023

The windows below are the legal harvest dates for each species in Tuscany under regional law 36/2023, as summarised by the Regione Toscana. Outside its window a truffle may not be dug or sold fresh, so a hunt in that month looks for a different species.

Which law sets the dates

Truffle collection in Tuscany is governed by Legge Regionale 2 agosto 2023, n. 36, which replaced the older regional law L.R. 50/1995. Its implementing regulation, Decreto del Presidente della Giunta Regionale 2/R, was published in the regional bulletin on 10 January 2025 and the law took formal effect on 25 January 2025. Regione Toscana describes the update as adjusting the harvest calendar to reflect climate change while protecting the truffle-producing areas. Underneath the regional law sits the national framework, Legge 16 dicembre 1985, n. 752, which sets minimum rules for all of Italy.

One caution on sources. The species-by-species dates we reproduce below come from operator calendars citing the 2023 law. A separate summary describing the Mugello and Casentino zones gives a single authorised collection period of three months spanning 10 September to 31 December, which does not match the per-species windows. We treat that as a conflict and flag it rather than pick a side. For booking purposes, the per-species calendar is the one the guides actually work to.

Season by species

The table lists every regularly harvested Tuscan species with its legal window. Note that two species share the January to mid-April slot and two share the October to mid-January slot, so a hunt in those overlaps can legally find more than one kind.

What Each Month Can Find

This table reads the same legal windows month by month, so you can see which species a hunt can legally look for in the month you travel and what that means for the day in the woods.

The honest baseline

Every booked hunt on this site is a demonstration in the woods with a licensed hunter and trained dogs, usually 1 to 2 hours of walking. Nobody can promise a find, and nobody can promise the white truffle even at the peak of its season. What a month determines is which species is legally present and in condition, not whether the dog scores.

With that said, some months give a far better chance than others, and the table below is the working summary of the calendar above.

The working calendar for visitors

Spring hunts (March and April) work the tail of the bianchetto season, the least valuable truffle, and by May there is effectively a gap month. Summer hunts find scorzone, the peppery black summer truffle that sells for the lowest prices. The great months are October and November, when the white truffle, uncinato and scorzone overlap, and a dog can legitimately hit three species in one wood.

December thins out. Late winter belongs to brumale and bianchetto, which few tour operators build trips around, so most listed hunts simply stop advertising in that period.

What that means for each month

Permitted digging hours also change through the year, set month by month on solar time rather than one fixed rule. The calendar gives roughly 7:00 to 18:00 in January, widening to about 4:00 to 21:00 in June, and tightening again toward winter. National law separately bans searching at night, defined as from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise.

October and November for the white truffle

The white truffle season opens on 1 October and runs to 15 January, but the strongest stretch is October and November. Rainfall supports it: inland Tuscany gets about 4.3 inches of rain over roughly 6 days in October, the start of the wet autumn pattern that produces good conditions. This is also when the fairs run and when the largest number of hunts are scheduled, so availability is widest even though demand is highest.

The honest caveat is price and scarcity. Traders near San Miniato say Tuscan white-truffle quantities have roughly halved compared with five or six years earlier, and a run of three consecutive lean seasons pushed prices up. A hunt itself does not rise in price with the market, but if your tour includes tasting or buying, expect the truffle in season to cost several thousand euros a kilo.

Book a hunt in this window and you are seeing the real thing. The San Miniato hunt with lunch runs on a family property in the heart of white truffle country, and the Volterra area hunt is the lowest-priced option we list.

Summer for scorzone, and no pretending otherwise

A June to August hunt finds the black summer truffle. That is not a downgrade sold by accident, it is the only thing legally in season, and well-run operators say so plainly. Scorzone has a lighter aroma than the winter blacks and sells at the lowest prices of any regularly traded Tuscan truffle, roughly 100 to €350 per kilo at retail depending on size and season.

If you want a family morning in the woods with a dog and a tasting afterwards, summer is fine value. If a listing in summer promises white truffle, close the tab.

Late autumn into winter for the black truffle

From 15 November the black winter truffle, Tuber melanosporum, comes into season, running to 15 March. It is the Périgord-type truffle, aromatic and cooked rather than shaved raw, and retails at roughly 350 to €600 per kilo, a fraction of white. Few of the listed hunts market themselves around it, because most visitors come for the white, but December and January hunts can legitimately find both.

See how the two compare in white truffle vs black truffle.

The Autumn Fair Weekends

The three main Tuscan white truffle fairs and their autumn weekends, as published by each organiser. Book a hunt for the Friday or the Monday and spend the weekend at the fair.

One short table of the weekends

Three centres stage white-truffle markets in autumn: San Miniato in the Pisa hills, San Giovanni d'Asso in the Crete Senesi, and Volterra. Entry fees for the 2026 editions of the San Miniato and San Giovanni d'Asso fairs are not stated in any source we found. For full programmes and travel logistics, see our guide to the San Miniato white truffle fair.

Volterra also holds a separate spring fair for the bianchetto on 4-6 April 2026, outside the white season.

Why pair a fair with a hunt

A hunt shows you how a truffle is found. A fair shows you what it is worth, since stalls sell by weight at posted daily prices. San Miniato is the best-known white-truffle town in Tuscany, and its record still shapes the season's story: on the night of 26 October 1954, a hunter and his dog found a white truffle weighing 2,520 grams near the town, long cited as the largest ever, and it was given to US President Eisenhower.

White truffle at San Miniato

In the 2025 season, San Miniato white truffle opened around €2,000 per kilo at the start, in October, and rose to a base of about €3,000 per kilo by November, before climbing further during the fair. The season before was worse: in the lean 2024 season prices went above €4,000 per kilo, because dry conditions cut the harvestable quantity roughly in half compared with five or six years earlier. For comparison, ordinary Alba market prices for white truffle in the 2025 season ran from about €1,300 per kilo for smaller specimens up to €3,000 for the most prized, a broadly similar range to San Miniato.

A black winter truffle retails at roughly 350 to €600 per kilo, and the summer scorzone at roughly 100 to €350 per kilo. A hunt in October does not cost more than a hunt in summer, but the truffle on the lunch plate absolutely does. Price figures in this section are market quotations from the seasons named, not what your tour charges.

Autumn: cool, wet, muddy

Inland Tuscany in November runs cool and fairly wet, with average daily temperatures around 11 degrees Celsius, highs near 15 and lows near 7, and roughly 5.7 inches of rain spread over about 7 days. October averages about 4.3 inches of rain over roughly 6 days. On the ground that means wet leaf litter, mud and standing puddles under oak and poplar woods.

Local guides around San Miniato and the Crete Senesi recommend proper waterproof boots for any accompanied hunt. Bring a rain layer and clothes you do not mind staining.

Summer: hot, dry, early starts

The permitted June digging window opens at about 4:00 on solar time for a reason. Summer woods are hot, and hunts start early to work the dogs while the ground is cool. Wear closed walking shoes, a hat and light long trousers, since scorzone woods are often scrubby and dry.

One listed Volterra-area hunt explicitly bans open-toed shoes and sandals on the walk, and that rule is sensible everywhere.

Winter: cold and short days

January hunts for the last whites or the first brumale dig in a window of roughly 7:00 to 18:00 at best, and the woods are cold after rain. Dress in layers, expect bare trees and bare mud, and remember that a hunt is usually only 1 to 2 hours of walking, so you do not need expedition gear, just waterproof footwear and a warm jacket.