In recent months the local talk has been about female sexual tourism in remote Tuscan hilltop towns and how some of the local lads have been suffering (not sure from it or from the lack of it).. anyhow I read an article in the Guardian Newspaper entitled "In search of the Big Bamboo" about this phenomenon so I decided to investigate the local phenomenon more closely to see if small Tuscan hilltop towns do have more to offer than chestnuts, mushrooms, goatscheese and berries .

In search of “il Big Porcino”

Hidden amidst the flickering bunting flags, wine sippers and cheese eaters in the local piazza of the Tuscan hilltop town , there are the buffed heads of middle aged men hopeful of catching the eye of a single tourist woman looking for that elusive Boletus Brisa.

These female mushroom hunting tourists dress in stiletto hiking boots, pointed trekking lipstick and a rambling smile. They expertly meander through the twisting steep and narrow streets until dazzled by the reflective balding glow of their “Mushroom Boy”.

You soon notice that they have no culinary interest in the local produce and that a few grams of the finest porcinis to make a sauce or mix with a plate of pappardelle isn’t what they want.

They are hunting a different sort of mushroom, they are in search of the Hilltop equivalent to the so called Caribbean “big bamboo”, which over here in the less tropical and slightly more mountainous climes is known locally as “il Big Porcino”, although its scientific name “Ample Boletus” is quite commonly used by the more bashful learned tourists.