Eighteen people have died in the northern regions of Italy in the last 10 days according to health officials. They have been killed by their love of fungi, collected during the mushroom season that is currently at its peak in the foothills of the Apennines and European Alps.
Most of the deaths have come from fungi accidents, not from poisoning. Given the steep terrain in which the delicacies are found, most of the fungaioli who die do so from falls (one dropped off a 100 metre cliff), while others get lost on the trail and die of exposure as mountain temperature plummet overnight.
The competitive nature of much of the mushroom hunting has been blamed for many of the accidents. Often people set off in the dark of early morning, hoping to find their special mushroom destinations in secret. They are also inclined to wear dark clothes so they cannot be seen from a distance, which makes finding lost fungaioli particularly hard.
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