Case description
Francesca C. described this childhood experience to investigator Alfredo Fiorino in 1988, placing it at Corbola on the River Po in 1927. She recalled being eleven or twelve and going to the river with two buckets to collect water. A round, brilliantly luminous object, estimated at two to three metres across, descended into the water only seven or eight metres from her. Bubbles appeared where it submerged; she estimated that it remained below the surface for three to five minutes.
The object then re-emerged and rose rapidly away. Francesca recalled seeing a small humanlike head, bare rather than helmeted, visible only from the neck upward. Her impression was that someone was seated within the object, but the account does not establish the precise opening or a transparent dome. She also remembered intense glare and an uncertain whistling or aircraft-like sound. These are recollections of her perceptions, rather than measurements or recovered physical evidence.
The long reporting interval matters: the interview took place about sixty-one years after the alleged event, and she said she had discussed it with her husband and son only decades afterward. The fuller report supports a round luminous object and a humanlike head; it does not establish the catalogue’s more specific suggestion of a grey occupant in a dome. The day and month remain unknown.
