Within Friuli UFOs
Who Kept Friuli's UFO Stories Alive?
Antonio Chiumiento helped keep regional cases alive through witness collection, talks and local publishing.
On this page
- Chiumiento's role in regional investigation
- Strengths of local witness gathering
- Verification problems in investigator led files
Page outline Jump by section
Introduction
Antonio Chiumiento matters to Friuli-Venezia Giulia’s UFO history because he represents the investigator-led layer of the record: the interviews, local meetings, photographs, witness files and self-published or small-press dossiers that often sit outside official archives. Based in the Pordenone area, he helped turn scattered reports from places such as Aviano, Cordenons, Azzano Decimo, the Pordenone foothills and Mortegliano into a continuing regional narrative rather than isolated anecdotes. That does not mean his files prove extraordinary craft or alien visitors. It means they preserve claims, names, locations, dates and follow-up material that would otherwise be much harder to trace. His work is most useful when read alongside, not instead of, the Italian Air Force’s formal reporting route and the local press record. The central question is therefore not whether Chiumiento “solved” Friuli’s UFO stories, but how his collecting shaped what later readers can still examine.[booksprintedizioni.it+2Aeronautica Militare]booksprintedizioni.itAntonio ChiumientoCasa Editrice BookSprint Edizioni…
Why Chiumiento became central to Friuli’s UFO memory
Chiumiento’s relevance begins with geography and persistence. Although born in Benevento in 1949, public biographical sources place his UFO activity strongly in north-eastern Italy: he wrote on the subject for the Trieste daily Il Piccolo, the Pordenone monthly Pienne, and TVR Notizie, a weekly circulating in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto. He also founded the private research group CRUV, described as a UFO research centre for the Triveneto area, before taking national roles in the Italian UFO scene.[booksprintedizioni.it]booksprintedizioni.itAntonio ChiumientoCasa Editrice BookSprint Edizioni…
Those national roles gave him status, but his regional importance came from something more practical: he kept asking witnesses for accounts. BookSprint’s author profile says he became involved in UFO inquiry in 1977, joined the board of the Centro Ufologico Nazionale in 1979, later served as its vice-president, and became the first president of the Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici. The same profile says he had carried out around 2,000 inquiries over about 46 years and built a large archive, much of it reportedly recorded on magnetic tape. Those figures come from publisher and author-facing material, so they should be treated as claims about the scale of his archive rather than independently audited totals.[booksprintedizioni.it]booksprintedizioni.itAntonio ChiumientoCasa Editrice BookSprint Edizioni…
For Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the important point is that Chiumiento’s role was not limited to commenting on already-famous national cases. He and his collaborators created a channel through which people in the Pordenone area could report odd lights, photographs, alleged close encounters and “strange creature” claims. In a 2016 interview, he said he had never personally witnessed a UFO or unusual being and presented his interest as curiosity-driven rather than based on a personal sighting. That admission is useful: it separates his role as collector and interpreter from the role of direct witness.[fattiifattituoi.com]fattiifattituoi.comFatti i fatti tuoi!: Antonio Chiumiento: la mia verità sugli UFOFatti i fatti tuoi!: Antonio Chiumiento: la mia verità sugli UFO
What his local investigation actually looked like
Chiumiento’s regional work was built around testimony first, then publication and public presentation. In the 2016 interview, he said his books contained witness accounts from his own inquiries or those of trusted collaborators, and that his investigations were often recorded; where there was no recording, he said there was a signed witness statement. This is the strongest version of his method as he presents it: preserve the witness account as fully as possible, keep a record of how it was obtained, and publish selected cases so they do not disappear.[fattiifattituoi.com]fattiifattituoi.comFatti i fatti tuoi!: Antonio Chiumiento: la mia verità sugli UFOFatti i fatti tuoi!: Antonio Chiumiento: la mia verità sugli UFO
His publisher profile also describes a rating-style method: for each episode, he or collaborators under his supervision assigned a credibility coefficient to the witness or witnesses and a strangeness coefficient to the event. That approach is familiar in private UFO research because it tries to separate two questions that are often confused: whether a witness seems sincere and competent, and whether the reported event is genuinely hard to explain. A reliable witness can misidentify an aircraft, planet or lantern; a bizarre story can still be weakly supported.[booksprintedizioni.it]booksprintedizioni.itAntonio ChiumientoCasa Editrice BookSprint Edizioni…
In practice, his Friuli work mixed several kinds of material:
- Witness interviews, including accounts of lights, objects and alleged beings.
- Photographs and video stills, especially in later Pordenone-area cases where cameras became central to the claim.
- Local public meetings, where cases were presented to curious audiences rather than held only in private files.
- Small-press books and dossiers, which moved reports from informal memory into a more durable printed form.
- Occasional attempted institutional contact, such as reports said to have been sent to the Italian Air Force security department and Aviano in connection with the 2011 “red globes” case.[Messaggero Veneto]messaggeroveneto.itOpen source on messaggeroveneto.it.
This makes Chiumiento’s work valuable as a regional archive, but it also creates a built-in tension. A witness-centred file can preserve detail that official channels miss, yet it can also inherit the witness’s mistakes, the investigator’s assumptions, and the limits of photographs taken without controlled conditions.
The Pordenone foothills and the making of a local hotspot
One reason Chiumiento’s name stays attached to Friuli UFO history is the repeated attention he gave to the Pordenone foothills. A 2011 Messaggero Veneto report described his book Apri gli occhi as presenting 79 cases, many linked to the Pedemontana pordenonese, with public discussion in Pordenone. The article noted a striking feature of some claims: objects allegedly appeared in photographs even when not seen with the naked eye. That detail is important because it changes the evidential problem. Instead of asking only “what did the witness see?”, the investigator must ask what the camera captured, whether the image shows an object in the sky, and whether optical artefacts, insects, birds, aircraft, lens effects or processing issues were excluded.[Messaggero Veneto]messaggeroveneto.itchiumiento svela foto di altri ufo lly5ydx2Messaggero VenetoChiumiento svela foto di altri Ufo9 Oct 2011 — La novità che dà la scossa è il fatto che a occhio nudo gli Ufo non si ve…
The same 2011 report mentioned Budoia, Aviano and Piancavallo as areas where witnesses or collaborators photographed skies and later reported unexpected objects in the images. It also recorded Chiumiento’s claim that the USAF base at Aviano was not responsible for the cases in that dossier. That denial matters locally because Aviano is the obvious conventional reference point for many readers: when unusual lights are reported near Pordenone, military aviation is one of the first explanations to check.[Messaggero Veneto]messaggeroveneto.itchiumiento svela foto di altri ufo lly5ydx2Messaggero VenetoChiumiento svela foto di altri Ufo9 Oct 2011 — La novità che dà la scossa è il fatto che a occhio nudo gli Ufo non si ve…
By 2014, local coverage again presented Chiumiento and his collaborators as updating a Pordenone-area dossier. At a public event in Azzano Decimo, he was reported as saying sightings were increasing in the foothill belt and in the city. The same article discussed “red globes” reportedly seen over Pordenone and Cordenons in May and June 2011, with technical reports attributed to the local amateur astronomer Franco Serafini. Those reports were said to have been sent to the Air Force security department in Rome and to Aviano, with no reply reported in the article.[Messaggero Veneto]messaggeroveneto.itOpen source on messaggeroveneto.it.
The regional significance is not that these cases are settled. It is that Chiumiento’s network gave them continuity. Instead of one evening’s local curiosity, the claims became part of a running Pordenone-area file: photographs, public talks, named collaborators, technical language, local press attention and comparison with earlier reports.
Where his files overlap with the official route
Chiumiento’s work sits beside Italy’s official UFO reporting system, not inside it. The Italian Air Force says it was designated after the 1978 wave of sightings to collect, verify and monitor reports of unidentified flying objects. Its current page explains that reports are submitted through the Carabinieri, checked for possible links to human activity or natural phenomena, and classified as unidentified only when no technical or natural justification can be found after assessment. The stated purpose is flight safety and national security.[Aeronautica Militare]aeronautica.difesa.itAeronautica Militare OVNIAeronautica MilitareOVNI - Aeronautica Militare…
That official route helps readers interpret Chiumiento’s files more carefully. A privately collected report can be interesting, detailed and sincere without being an official unexplained case. Conversely, an official “unidentified” classification does not mean alien; it means the available data did not allow a normal explanation to be established. For Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the most useful approach is to compare the two layers: what local investigators recorded, what witnesses were willing to sign or say publicly, and whether the same event appears in Air Force material, police channels, airport records, meteorological data or local journalism.
The 2014 Pordenone “red globes” coverage shows both the promise and the weakness of this overlap. Chiumiento’s side reportedly had testimony, photographs and technical reports. The article says those reports were sent to Rome and Aviano, but it does not show a formal Air Force conclusion, a radar correlation, an aviation log, or a published official response. That leaves the case in a middle category: more developed than a rumour, but not independently closed by public official documentation.[Messaggero Veneto]messaggeroveneto.itOpen source on messaggeroveneto.it.
What local witness gathering does well
Local investigator-led work has real strengths, especially in a region where many reports would never become national news. Chiumiento’s model gave witnesses a recognisable point of contact. His public profile, books and talks made it easier for people to report odd experiences without first navigating a military form or police station. That matters because unusual sightings are often socially awkward: people may fear ridicule, may not know what they saw, or may only mention it after hearing that others have reported something similar.
His publishing record also made local material more durable. Listings for his books show a steady movement from early biographical and case collections to later volumes containing dozens or hundreds of investigations. Alieni tra noi is described as collecting 54 witness accounts; Apri gli occhi is listed as a 2014 volume; Avvistamenti e presenze misteriose is described as including material on the Mortegliano creature claim and technical reports on the Pordenone “red globes”; Obiettivo non identificato is described as collecting about 85 episodes; and the 2024 UFO ed enigmatiche presenze is presented as a chronological selection of 150 episodes from 1941 to 2022.[www.luccasapiens.it]luccasapiens.itOpen source on luccasapiens.it.
For Friuli-Venezia Giulia, this means Chiumiento preserved not just spectacular claims but a pattern of reporting. A single weak photograph may not prove much. A sequence of reports, however, can show where people were looking, what kinds of objects they described, which explanations were repeatedly considered, and how local UFO culture developed around Pordenone and the foothills.
His files also capture the human side of the subject. Local UFO history is not only about objects in the sky; it is about how ordinary people, amateur astronomers, retired pilots, journalists, sceptics and committed believers negotiated uncertainty. Chiumiento’s meetings in Pordenone and Azzano Decimo, as reported by Messaggero Veneto, show a regional public sphere around the topic: audiences, debate, photographs projected in rooms, and the repeated question of whether the material showed alien activity, mistakes, hoaxes or something genuinely unexplained.[Messaggero Veneto]messaggeroveneto.itchiumiento svela foto di altri ufo lly5ydx2Messaggero VenetoChiumiento svela foto di altri Ufo9 Oct 2011 — La novità che dà la scossa è il fatto che a occhio nudo gli Ufo non si ve…
Where the evidence becomes fragile
The main weakness of Chiumiento-led material is not that it is local or private. It is that much of it depends on testimony, photographs and interpretive judgement without enough independently checkable data. When a witness reports a light, an object or a being, the core questions are basic but difficult: exact time, exact location, viewing direction, duration, weather, astronomical conditions, aircraft movements, camera settings, image metadata, other witnesses, and whether any official or technical record exists.
Photographic cases are especially vulnerable. The 2011 coverage of the Pordenone foothills described objects appearing in images even when not seen by the naked eye. That can be intriguing, but it is also a classic warning sign for image-based UFO claims. Small objects close to the lens, birds, insects, dust, compression artefacts, reflections, motion blur and digital processing can all produce shapes that look more dramatic after the fact than they did at the scene. Without original files, full metadata, lens information and independent analysis, a photograph is rarely enough.[Messaggero Veneto]messaggeroveneto.itchiumiento svela foto di altri ufo lly5ydx2Messaggero VenetoChiumiento svela foto di altri Ufo9 Oct 2011 — La novità che dà la scossa è il fatto che a occhio nudo gli Ufo non si ve…
How readers should weigh his Friuli material
The fairest way to use Chiumiento’s Friuli material is to treat it as an investigator’s archive, not as a verdict. It is strongest when it provides concrete details that can be checked against other records: named locations, dates, times, witness circumstances, original photographs, signed statements, recordings, and correspondence with institutions. It is weaker when the claim rests mainly on interpretation, dramatic wording, or the assumption that a witness’s sincerity makes a sighting extraordinary.
A practical credibility ladder helps:<div class="content-enhancement content-enhancement--step-flow" markdown="1">
- Best regional value: cases with named locations, precise timing, multiple independent witnesses, original media, and evidence that official or technical checks were attempted.
- Moderate value: detailed witness accounts preserved soon after the event, especially when the witness’s position or skill is relevant, but with limited external confirmation.
- Low value: images found after the fact, stories retold long after the event, or claims where ordinary explanations were not seriously tested.
- Cultural value rather than evidential value: public meetings, media appearances and books that show how UFO belief and curiosity developed locally, even when individual cases remain weak.</div>
On that ladder, Chiumiento’s importance is clear but bounded. He gave Friuli-Venezia Giulia a larger private record than the official archive alone would show. He connected local witnesses with a known investigator. He brought Pordenone-area cases into print and local newspapers. But the existence of an archive does not automatically raise every case to high evidential status.
Why his work still matters in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Chiumiento’s work matters because regional UFO history is often made in exactly this way: not by a single decisive document, but by the accumulation of witness reports, local articles, private files and later attempts to organise them. Friuli-Venezia Giulia has official Air Force material, aviation-linked geography, Aviano’s military presence, and local press coverage, but Chiumiento supplied a long-running human network around those elements.
His role also helps explain why Pordenone and the surrounding foothill belt occupy such a visible place in the region’s UFO narrative. Without investigators who collect testimony, hold meetings and publish dossiers, many reports would remain private memories. With such investigators, however, another risk appears: weak cases can gain durability simply because they were written down, repeated and presented in public. The reader’s task is to keep both truths in view.
The result is a balanced picture. Antonio Chiumiento did not provide final proof that Friuli’s UFO reports were extraterrestrial. He did help keep Friuli’s UFO stories alive, especially around Pordenone, Aviano, Cordenons, Azzano Decimo and Mortegliano. His archive and publications are therefore best read as a major regional source base: rich in testimony, valuable for local history, sometimes suggestive, often disputed, and always in need of comparison with official records, aviation data, astronomy, weather and careful sceptical review.
eBay marketplace picks
Marketplace Samples
Live-tested eBay searches with available results related to this page.
Endnotes
1.
Source: booksprintedizioni.it
Title: Antonio Chiumiento
Link:https://www.booksprintedizioni.it/autore/antonio-chiumiento
2.
Source: fattiifattituoi.com
Title: Fatti i fatti tuoi!: Antonio Chiumiento: la mia verità sugli UFO
Link:https://www.fattiifattituoi.com/2016/01/antonio-chiumiento-la-mia-verita-sugli.html
3.
Source: luccasapiens.it
Link:https://www.luccasapiens.it/libri-autore/antonio-chiumiento.html
4.
Source: booksprint.eu
Link:https://www.booksprint.eu/disk/libri/anteprima_ufo_ed_enigmatiche_presenze.pdf
5.
Source: aeronautica.difesa.it
Title: Aeronautica Militare OVNI
Link:https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/ovni/
6.
Source: messaggeroveneto.it
Title: chiumiento svela foto di altri ufo lly5ydx2
Link:https://www.messaggeroveneto.it/cronaca/chiumiento-svela-foto-di-altri-ufo-lly5ydx2
7.
Source: messaggeroveneto.it
Link:https://www.messaggeroveneto.it/cronaca/avvistamenti-ufo-in-aumento-nella-pedemontana-e-a-pordenone-fv0d0knx
8.
Source: store.edizionisegno.it
Link:https://store.edizionisegno.it/misteri/1752-obiettivo-non-identificato.html
9.
Source: youtube.com
Title:”Ufo ed enigmatiche presenze”
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6cVZCXOnAo
10.
Source: aeronautica.difesa.it
Title: it OVN I
Link:https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/en/2023/01/12/ovni/
11.
Source: aeronautica.difesa.it
Title: visita del prefetto di pordenone al comando aeroporto di aviano
Link:https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/news/visita-del-prefetto-di-pordenone-al-comando-aeroporto-di-aviano/
12.
Source: aeronautica.difesa.it
Title: it OVN I Archives
Link:https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/category/ovni/
13.
Source: aeronautica.difesa.it
Link:https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ModuloUFO-1.pdf
14.
Source: play.google.com
Title: Ufo ed enigmatiche presenze
Link:https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Ufo_ed_enigmatiche_presenze?hl=en_AU&id=ocz1EAAAQBAJ
15.
Source: play.google.com
Title: Ufo ed enigmatiche presenze
Link:https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Ufo_ed_enigmatiche_presenze?hl=da&id=ocz1EAAAQBAJ
16.
Source: ibs.it
Title: Avvistamenti e presenze misteriose
Link:https://www.ibs.it/avvistamenti-presenze-misteriose-libro-antonio-chiumiento/e/9788866432876?srsltid=AfmBOor3hzE_rrqYAjYUtLckSaRoado4eZ_Pcabaajh0l57qfBMxcAnR
17.
Source: amazon.fr
Title: Obiettivo non identificato
Link:https://www.amazon.fr/Obiettivo-non-identificato-Antonio-Chiumiento/dp/8893185156?tag=searcht-20
18.
Source: store.edizionisegno.it
Title: 2587 una vita dedicata alla scuola e al mistero ufo
Link:https://store.edizionisegno.it/misteri/2587-una-vita-dedicata-alla-scuola-e-al-mistero-ufo.html
19.
Source: it.scribd.com
Link:https://it.scribd.com/document/490374032/Ufo
20.
Source: unilibro.it
Title: antonio chiumiento
Link:https://www.unilibro.it/libri/f/autore/antonio_chiumiento?srsltid=AfmBOor1veJ6B03AyuQD9aOtbfkn-7F2iJOlqeKVYcIAaJMGq75dS6gh
Additional References
21.
Source: uapcheck.com
Link:https://www.uapcheck.com/es/noticias/id/2506/150-reports-in-a-new-book-by-antonio-chiumiento/
22.
Source: aeroclubpordenone.com
Link:https://www.aeroclubpordenone.com/documenti/norme-e-regolamenti.html?download=2%3A002-accordo-con-aviano-stralcio
23.
Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/p/Antonio-Chiumiento-e-casi-UFO-fotografici-100068484680379/
24.
Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/100069521754288/posts/1445180442342739/
25.
Source: regione.fvg.it
Link:https://www.regione.fvg.it/rafvg/cms/RAFVG/ambiente-territorio/conoscere-ambiente-territorio/FOGLIA3/
26.
Source: libreriauniversitaria.it
Link:https://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/avvistamenti-presenze-misteriose-chiumiento-antonio/libro/9788866432876?srsltid=AfmBOoqAQ1zeGC_6dslEVy-aeYF6EBvDXbFGK9U95hamniEfkukq9Qeo
27.
Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/chiumientoantonio/
28.
Source: libreriauniversitaria.it
Link:https://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/ho-prove-verita-presenza-alieni/libro/9788889199053?srsltid=AfmBOoowAJvXQBYUuExdchWK7SwZOlR7nPjqzJ330EQSBd0h6TdlSYGe
29.
Source: librerie.coop
Link:https://www.librerie.coop/autori/antonio-chiumiento/
30.
Source: igmi.org
Link:https://www.igmi.org/
Topic Tree
Follow this branch
Parent topic
Friuli UFOsRelated pages 9
- 1999 Planets When Two Planets Looked Like a UFO
- Air Force Files What Do Friuli's Official UFO Files Show?
- Airport Cases Why Airports Make UFO Reports Harder
- Aviano Do Aviano Sightings Really Change the Evidence?
- Campoformido The Orange Sphere Over Campoformido
- Explanations What Could Friuli's UFOs Have Been?
- Press Coverage How Newspapers Built Friuli's UFO Memory
- Red Globes Why Did Red Globes Haunt Pordenone Reports?
- Ronchi 1973 Why Does the 1973 Ronchi Case Matter?