Encounter record / 1978
Torrita di Siena, Tuscany. 17 September 1978. A fireball blazed over via Piè agli Orti, announced by a bang like artillery fire. Less than an hour later, barber Rivo Faralli started his Fiat 127. The engine died. The headlights died. A glowing red disc with an orange dome came down on the road in front of him, standing on three beams of coloured light. A double door opened. Two small beings in green coveralls and helmets floated out and circled his car. Then they floated back, and the craft shot away in level flight. It left scorched marks on the road. And a man who, decades later, still stood by every part of his story.
Autumn 1978. Italy was in the grip of "la grande ondata", a wave usually put at about 2,000 sightings and dozens of claimed close encounters. Torrita di Siena is a small town in the Province of Siena, Tuscany. One of those encounters would happen on a road called via Piè agli Orti.