“The Ave Maria is playing and the masche are in the street,” goes a local proverb. A reminder to inhabitants of the Langhe that after the last tolling of the bells at night, the hills come alive with terror.

The Langhe’s history is riddled with the battle between night and day. You can follow a chronological line of demarcation between the two. The isolation of each village, the omnipresent darkness, the objective danger of thieves and brigands: real-life fears became transformed into myth, a local folklore ripe with nocturnal tales. Tradition has changed the night into something that sets even the bravest soul on edge. But of course, not every “soul.” Of course, the night also has its own visitors. The masche – the witches – of the Langhe and the trifolao, those warriors of the night who venture out only with canine and stick in search of the “diamond of the ground:” the precious white truffle.

To talk about night and mythology, of masche and trifolao we interviewed one of the greatest experts of “peasant time”, Professor Piercarlo Grimaldi. Anthropologist and former rector of the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Grimaldi has written a great deal about the festivals and ceremonies that mark the traditional calendar. Among his latest books, Di tartufi e di Masche is dedicated to the White Truffle of Alba and its extraordinary “night history”.
 

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