With the curly-haired Lagotto dog Rex leading the way, Matteo Cameli and I trek across a field of wildflowers to the family’s truffle reserve. Here in the Emilia-Romagna countryside, black and white truffles hide in the darkness beneath oak and lime trees, waiting to be sniffed out by the Cameli family’s expertly trained dogs.
Truffle hunting is one activity for guests proposed by the family’s albergo diffuso, or “scattered hotel”, located in the tiny nearby hamlet of Portico di Romagna. With Cameli’s mother Marisa Raggi at the helm, the Al Vecchio Convento scattered hotel seems like a model for socially distanced post-pandemic holidays — but also for a sustainable future of tourism so desperately needed by our planet.
