Over a kilo of wonder found in the Tertenia countryside. It's not a mushroom. It's (almost) a trophy. Among the holm oaks and Mediterranean scrub, which after the first autumn rains have begun to smell of wet earth, it has emerged. A black porcini mushroom, Boletus aereus .

The one who found it, eyes downcast and stick in hand, as is the tradition of Sardinian prospectors, was Sandro Murredda , a retired Carabinieri marshal who knows those trails well. When he picked it up, he immediately realized it wasn't a day like any other. Placed on a kitchen scale, the needle stopped at a very respectable figure: 1,078 kilograms .

More than a kilo of fleshy cap, squat and compact stem, still covered in dirt and twigs. A specimen deformed by its own abundance, grown undisturbed until it became the king of the scrub. Experts say the black porcini mushroom is the most prized, the rarest, the most stubborn. It doesn't like to be found. It craves warmth during the day and humidity at night, it craves old oak trees and silence. For this reason, every year its appearance is a ritual. It marks the official start of the season.

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