“Some people have the idea that you go and find gold like an A.T.M. machine,” said Arturo Ramella, one of the founders of the 30-year-old Biella Goldpanning Association, which hosted the competition. But in Italy, most of the nuggets to be found are about the size of bread crumbs.

“We know you can’t live off of this so we try to discourage people,” Mr. Ramella said. “There are some retirees that go every day and if they find a flake or two it can add up, but it’s not going to substitute a salary, not in Italy.”

That said, the area has more than a hint of gold fever “because there is always the possibility to find gold here — it’s a very attractive stream,” he said.

The Elvo runs alongside the Natural Reserve of the Bessa, a former open-air gold mine that for about 100 years between the second and first century B.C. was the “ancient world’s biggest gold deposit,” said Aldo Rocchetti, the director of a museum about the Bessa gold field in Vermogno.