Flying Saucer Review August 1985 [antikvár]

A LANDING AT VARZI IN NORTHERN ITALYAntonio ChiumientoVice-President of C.U.N. (Italian National Ufologlcal Centre) (Translation from Italian)Varzi. a small town in the Province of Pavia, lies due south of Milano at about 44° 55 N. 9° 10 E, and an altitude of 416 m., on the northern bank of a small river called the Staffora and in the middle of a shallow and fairly open valley. The landscape is typically hilly, with cultivations alternating with areas of woodland and frequent scattered farmsteads.The area where the sighting occurred is on the opposite bank of the river to the town, and is the northeastward-facing side of a low hill sloping gently dovm towards the stream. The road cuts horizontally through the flank of the hill, separating the field, upstream, from the property of the eyewitnesses, whose house is located at a distance of some 150 m. as the crow flies. From their house one can range visually over the entire slope of the hill without encountering obstacles of any sort. The road is at about 15 degrees to the horizon at the observation site (the terrace of the house).Description of the PhenomenonThe persistent, angry, and prolonged barking of his dogs awakened Mario Glaretto at about 5.50 a.m. on Sunday, June 5, 1983. Aged 56, he resides at Ca Bianca di Varzi, amid the green meadows of the Staffora Valley.He glanced out from the terrace to see what had thrown his animals into such excitement, and, to his surprise, there was something shining on the hill, immediately above the tall alfalfa, and distant about 160 metres in a straight line from his house and about ten metres from the road. Observing more attentively, he noticed that it was a sort of orange-coloured "headlight" or "lamp", which formed part of a sort of dome with a flattened top. But there was also something else. The "something" was not stationary. It was slowly rotating in an anti-clockwise direction, showing now an orange-coloured section, in which was the "headhght", now a section bright as silver or like the colour of tinfoil, and then, finally, a dark segment. What could it possibly be?Mario Glaretto did not stop to ask himself the question, at least not straight away. He awakened his wife, Velia Bono, aged 57, so that she too might see that "spectacular and extraordinary something". His spouse was not long in giving her impression: "Itlooks exactly like tinfoil", and then, when she saw the orange part of the dark part, she added: "Maybe it's all caused by the sunshine?" But her husband's words: "Can't you see that it is rotating it's a lamp! and the Sun isn't visible yet over the hills!" failed to arouse enough curiosity in her to keep her from going back to bed. On the other hand, Mario's own desire to know had given way before his current domestic chores, at least for the time being. Some guests were due to be arriving later. It was necessary to do the cooking and prepare the mayonnaise. So he went down into the kitchen and devoted himself to this task, taking up position in front of the window through which he had an excellent view of the spot where the "thing" was.So, in between one egg and another, between a whipping and a tasting, he kept glancing out from the window where that sort of dome, always in the same position, continued to be clearly visible.It was only later that Mario Glaretto decided to do a better check-up. "I'm going to take a look now. I'll go up there slowly", he said to himself. (The eyewitness suffers from heart trouble, as we shall mention later.) There was no trace of fear or apprehension in him, neither was there excessive curiosity. He was already down in the courtyard, and therefore just about to start out, when he saw somebody, coming from the vineyard on the hillside to the right of the house and going straight towards that strange "thing"."It must certainly have been a man from the countryside," said Glaretto "I knew that from the way he walked. In some newspapers it was stated that he was in all probability a holiday visitor from Milano who had rented accommodation right here in Ca Bianca, not far from the house of the former mayor of Varzi, Professor Carlo Azzaretti. But country folk have a very particular way of putting down their feet between furrows and ditches. And that man moved just like someone used to the fields. I should also add that the man was wearing a blue shirt with vertical white stripes." The fact of the matter is that this unknown person (still not identified) was heading, as stated, precisely towards the "thing", and even got close to it, aFig. 1 Successive stages as the Varzi "object" took off. (Reconstruction by artist UGO FURLAN.)