Among those present - still recovering from his experience of the previous day - was 58-year-old Dario Pastrone, one of north-west Italy's best-known truffle-seekers. Like many others, he spent Friday and Saturday night in the wooded valleys around his native town of Chiusano looking for the aromatic tubers - rising demand has pushed the price to almost half that of gold. At dawn on Saturday, Mr Pastrone was driving to Asti for a meeting at the Caffe San Carlo, the town's unofficial truffle exchange, when he was forced off the road by another car.
Three men jumped out, shouting that they were police officers and demanding to know: "Where are the drugs?" The thieves opened the boot of his car and found what they were looking for: 400 grams of freshly-collected truffles.
"Those truffles weren't the best I'd found this season, but they were still worth €2,000 (£1,390)," said Mr Pastrone, who was relieved of a further €2,000 he was carrying in his wallet. Top-class truffles have been selling this year for up to €8,000 (£5,560) per kilo, against a latest gold price of €17,862 (£12,414).
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