Armed with his slim otka spade and accompanied by two eager lagotto romagnolos, my Croatian companion Armin strides deep into the Forest of Motovun. The sun glints through a tangle of trees as we step over exposed roots, clinging onto branches for balance on the steep slopes. Wild asparagus season is approaching an end, its young edible shoots giving way to bristling spines, as the emergence of another fruit of the forest — the black summer truffle — gives Lily and Dalma reason to get excited. ‘This is our playground,’ says Armin, who grew up in the nearby truffle capital of Buzet, as the pair zigzags through the leaf litter ahead. ‘These dogs are calm and have a lovely energy, but when they enter the woods they are like beasts.’

In the wild, largely unpopulated heart of Croatia’s Istri

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