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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Angela Giuffrida in Parco del Grottone, Viterbo

Gold, lucky charms or rusty nails? On the hunt with Italy’s detectorists

Contenders get ready for the Cesenatico metal detecting contest on the Adriatic coast.
Contenders get ready for the Cesenatico metal detecting contest on the Adriatic coast. Photograph: Detector Shop Italia

Leonardo Ciocca was a novice detectorist when he thought he’d made the discovery of the century.

He had been searching for treasures beneath the earth in a patch of Umbrian countryside when his metal detector began to emit a series of high-pitch beeps. The machine indicated the presence of a deeply buried “precious” metal.

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