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Vicenza also has areas that are particularly suitable for growing black truffles.
The Berici Hills is one of the areas that have terrain suitable for growing this type of mushroom. The area that has the greatest vocation is around Nanto, in the cities of Arcugnano, Longare, Castegnero, Mossano, Barbarano Vicentino, Villaga and Zovencedo. From the botanical point of view, truffles are hypogeous mushrooms, organisms that live underground and belong to the genre of “tubers”. Despite the name, they have nothing to do with potatoes, since they are close relatives of edible boletus and field mushrooms. They are formed underground, at a depth between 20 and 60 centimetres, and grow to varying sizes, ranging from the size of a cherry to the size of an apple. There are four species of black mushrooms that grow in the Berici Hills: the Tuber Melanosporum, which is particularly precious, the Aestivum or “scorzone” (with a heavy peeling), the Brumale or “winter truffle” and the Mesentericum or "ordinary truffle". Most of the harvest is handled in Nanto. There are about 650 authorised truffle gatherers in the Province of Vicenza. Most of the harvest is purchased by local restaurants (there are very few established sales
outlets). Thanks to recent experiments, the entire Berici Hills territory may
realistically be considered as having great prospects to increase truffle growing, with a new system of cultivation realised according to criteria of agronomic rationality and thanks to the planting of a congruous number of truffle-generating plants.