Istria's white truffle fair runs Saturdays and Sundays for five weekends, entry free. The part most visitors miss: a train into the Motovun forest where a hunter and his dogs let you join a real search, 45 minutes, 15 euro.
Checked: 23 August 2026
Livade is a village of a few hundred people in the Mirna valley, and for five weekends every autumn it becomes the place where Istria sells its white truffles. The fair runs from 3 October to 1 November 2026, Saturdays and Sundays only, and entry costs nothing. Around fifty thousand people come, most of them from Slovenia, Italy, Austria and Germany, which tells you when to arrive.
When it is open
| Day | Hours | Entry |
|---|---|---|
| Saturdays | 10:00 to 20:00 | free |
| Sundays | 10:00 to 19:00 | free |
| Truffle hunt | 45 minutes, several departures | 15 € adults, 10 € children |
The part most visitors walk past
A tourist train leaves the fairground for the Motovun forest, where a truffle hunter and his trained dogs are waiting. You walk with them while the dogs work, and when one finds something it is dug up in front of you. It takes 45 minutes and costs 15 euro for adults, 10 for children. Departures run through the day, roughly hourly from late morning; book on site or by phone, and leave your own dog at home, they distract the working dogs.
What else is on the tables
- The white truffle itself, sold by weight, at prices that move with the season and the rain. Ask what it costs per gram before it goes on the scale.
- An international expo of wine, prosciutto, cheese, olive oil, honey and rakija, most of it from Istrian producers who are standing behind their own table.
- Cooking workshops and tastings with chefs, on a stage in the middle of the fair. No ticket, but the good slots fill up.
Getting there, and when
Livade sits below Motovun in the Mirna valley, half an hour from Poreč, forty minutes from Pula and about two hours from Trieste or Ljubljana. There is one road in and it carries fifty thousand people across five weekends, so the parking near the fair fills by late morning. Come before eleven or after four; the light in the valley is better in the late afternoon anyway, and Motovun on its hill above is the obvious second stop.
Where next
- 5 kmMotovun, on the hill above the fair
The walled town that gives the forest its name, twenty minutes up the switchbacks. Park below and walk the last stretch, the gate is too narrow for the traffic anyway.
- 40 minPoreč and the basilica with the gold ceiling
Half an hour to the coast, where a sixth-century basilica keeps mosaics that have not moved in fifteen hundred years.
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