The environments of growth and cultivation of truffles are usually subjected to interdisciplinary investigations, involving chemists, geologists, biologists, agronomists and engineers, which are meant to trace the so-called podologic profile. These investigations are followed by equally complex studies of “Land Suitability Evaluation” on the basis of orders, classes, subclasses and units of attitude designed both for a valuation of the land for the use in question and for the estimation of a susceptibility of current or potential use. The following pages offer a summary of the most prestigious studies made to date.
But before introducing this section to you, let us reflect on the value and the importance of the soil, not only from the economic point of view because of its exploitation for agricultural, forestry or civilian uses but also from the point of view of landscape-environmental and cultural in the widest sense of the term. Just because the soil as a natural, dynamic and independent body, remains particularly a precious resource, non-renewable in short periods, often underestimated and exposed to the risk of a partial or total loss.
