Antonio Chiumiento has been a passionate UFO investigator for more than 46 years. He has just published a new thick book titled “UFO ed enigmatiche presenze” (Booksprint Edizioni) detailing about one hundred and fifty chronological reports spanning from 1941 to 2022 in 482 pages: UFO sightings and inexplicable phenomena, some of which were directly investigated by the author himself, while others were collected by former collaborators or current colleagues of his, and some other groups.
The case histories in this book are mostly from Northeastern Italy, particularly in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. However, there are also some national and even international cases (though most foreign reports were collected by one of his former collaborators, drawing information from online sources).
The book provides a variety of descriptions, some of which are supported by verbatim transcriptions of witness interviews as recorded on magnetic tape. While some event reconstructions are very detailed, others are just summarized, giving only a chronicle of the event. Some of the testimonies are of complex nature, just touching UFO-like phenomenology.
A wide range of cases is covered, from trivial to more enigmatic events. Such variety may offer the reader a comprehensive overview, although with the challenge of interpreting those phenomena without a proper guide.
Space is given to photographic cases, both with and without a visual sighting, but the heterogeneous nature of them leaves room for multiple interpretations, and the author does not offer one even when the evidence clearly suggests it.
Anyway, at 75 years of age, Antonio Chiumiento is continuing to explore the UFO mystery after a long career from local associations to national ones: he was vice-president of Centro Ufologico Nazionale, then the first president of Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici, before leaving and going on as an independent investigator.
This is his tenth book, following the previous ones, all published in Italian:
“Ho le prove – La verità sulla presenza degli alieni” (co-authored with Alessio Pasquini), Biblioteca dell’immagine, Pordenone, 2004;
“Alieni tra noi”, Editrice Nuovi Autori, Milano, 2004 (second edition at Editoriale Programma, Padova, 2011); also translated in French as “Extraterrestres - 54 témoignages”, Editions du Dauphin, Paris 2007;
“L’Ufonauta – Vivere e viaggiare con gli alieni” (co-author Ivana Rizzon), Scantabauchi, Padova, 2005;
“Apri gli occhi – Indagini documentate sull’esistenza degli U.F.O.”, Editoriale Programma, Padova, 2010;
“La creatura di Mortegliano”Editoriale Programma, Padova, 2012;
“Avvistamenti e presenze misteriose”, Editoriale Programma, Padova, 2014, also translated in French as "Observations et présences lumineuses", Editions du Dauphin, Paris, 2018;
“Una porta sull’ignoto”, Editoriale Programma, Padova, 2015;
“Obiettivo non identificato”, Edizioni Segno, Feletto Umberto, 2020;
“Una vita dedicata alla scuola e al mistero UFO – Le mie passioni”, Edizioni Segno, Feletto Umberto, 2020.
