Tagliacozzo, ITL being encounter — November 14, 1978

Stockbreeder Giuseppe di Giovanni, fifty-one, reportedly encountered an unusual object while searching for missing livestock near San Donato di Tagliacozzo before dawn on November 14, 1978. The earliest newspaper-derived version collected by Maurizio Verga gives a low brown circular object, about five metres wide, with small illuminated windows. Hatch instead gives three metres and six or seven portholes. Di Giovanni approached and believed he saw six or seven very small humanlike people wearing green. Two were blonde, female-appearing figures; the others were dark-haired and seemed older. Frightened, he hid behind vegetation and rubbed his eyes. The object remained, but was gone after he closed them again. Later versions replace the group with a single smiling woman and motionless man repeated identically at every window, as though viewed on synchronized screens. The accounts differ over shape, size, window form, occupant count and departure. One later version mentions an explosion and takeoff, whereas Verga’s early summary describes an unwitnessed disappearance. These alternatives should remain separate. The native entry’s duplication question is unresolved. The plate follows the early group version, leaving the repeated-image account in the description rather than combining incompatible occupants.