Our four-legged friends: introducing Brick and Mia

Every morning, before the sun has finished rising over the hills, they are already ready. Brick and Mia know the ritual better than anyone: the leash, the boots, the smell of the woods that changes with the seasons. They already know where we are going. They knew before we did.

They are both Lagotto Romagnolo, the breed that for centuries has made truffles their vocation, but they are two completely different characters, two ways of being in the woods, two personalities that together form a balance that we could not have designed.

Brick

Brick is the first. The one who blazed the trail, who learned faster than we expected, and who still today, after years of outings together, manages to surprise us.

He has honey-colored curly fur and an energy that knows no schedule: in the woods he is pure concentration, nose to the ground, fast and precise steps. Outside the woods he is the dog who takes up the whole sofa and falls asleep with the same intensity with which he works. He doesn't do anything by halves.

With Brick we learned what it means to trust a dog. There are mornings when he leads in a direction we would never have taken, and he is almost always right. In the woods, he is the pack leader.

Mia

Mia arrived later, and brought with her something Brick didn't have: patience. Where he is speed and instinct, she is method and attention. She searches calmly, circulates slowly around the area that interests her, then digs with almost surgical precision.

She has lighter fur, almost white, and two eyes that always seem to be asking questions. In the woods she is silent and determined. Outside, she is the first to greet newcomers, the first to understand the mood of the day, the first to settle down nearby when you're tired in the evening.

With Mia we understood that every dog has its own time, and that time is worth waiting for.

What they taught us

Working with Brick and Mia has changed the way we look at truffles — and the woods. We don't lead the search: we follow it. They have a relationship with the territory that is not built with maps or years of experience: it is instinct, scent, a form of knowledge that does not come through words.

Every truffle that reaches your tables has first passed through their noses. It's a detail we like to remember — not for romanticism, but because it's simply true.