Serchio River, ITL being encounter — July 25, 1952

Carlo Rossi, a farmer, said he was fishing on the Serchio near San Pietro a Vico at about 3 a.m. during the night of July 24–25, 1952, when he noticed an unusual glow. The machine he described was a dark disc 20–25 metres across, with oval openings, a transparent central structure, propellers beneath it and three superimposed rotors above. A long hose extended into the river, suggesting to Rossi that it was taking up water. His account included a human-looking face behind a diving-type helmet and an arm gesturing from an opening. Frightened, Rossi fled; later versions describe a green ray, a fall or shock, and the craft's departure. The follow-up story about an oddly dressed stranger, a cigarette and nausea belongs to a later encounter, with inconsistent dates, rather than to the river scene itself. The contemporary anchor is La Nazione's September 26, 1952 report and accompanying sketch. The CISU assessment reproduced in Patrick Gross's dossier cautions that later versions conflict and that a journalistic invention has been suspected. That suspicion is not a documented confession. The Atlas therefore retains the reported machine while marking the story disputed; its plate combines the principal river details as an illustration.