by Michael E. Salla, Ph.D

The most widespread reports of extraterrestrials walking among us come from Italy. Indeed, the most extensive case of mass contact occurred over the years from 1956 to 1978 in the Pescara region of Italy. This involved a group of extraterrestrials calling themselves ‘Amicizia’ or Friendship. The Friendship case was first revealed in Mass Contact, a book detailing the history of a mysterious group of human looking extraterrestrials that established underground bases in Italy and regularly met with local residents. The author, Stefano Breccia (now deceased) was a well regarded Italian UFOlogist with an electrical engineering background who taught at several Italian and foreign universities. He investigated the Amicizia (Friendship) case over a period of several decades during which he got to meet and question many of the primary witnesses. In his book, Breccia includes the testimony of Bruno Sammaciccia, a highly qualified Italian scholar with degrees in psychology and psychiatry, and author of 160 books. Sammaciccia’s testimony contains his claims of direct physical contact with extraterrestrials over several decades. Leading Italian UFOlogest, Dr. Roberto Pinotti wrote the Preface to the book and acknowledged his own decades long knowledge of the Friendship case, and the extensive evidence supporting it. Some of the many photos taken of UFOs and extraterrestrials in the Friendship case rank among the best quality ever taken. In terms of its overall impact, number of participants involved, and documentary evidence compiled, Mass Contact is the most astonishing case of human extraterrestrial contact in modern history.

In the Preface, Dr. Pinotti describes his amazement at overhearing his university professor talking about extraterrestrials while taking his final doctoral exam at the University of Florence in 1969. Upon approaching the professor and telling him of his interest in UFOs, the Professor asked Pinotti: “Are you aware of the underground alien base near Pescara and of its logistics.” Pinotti said it quickly became apparent that his professor belonged to the secret fellowship “which had been created in order to help the aliens in their enterprises on our planet.” Pinotti was able to confirm that “a group of human looking aliens from far away stars had built a huge underground structure along the shore of the Adriatic sea.” It was only with the passing away of Sammaciccia in 2003 that Pinotti decided to come forward to reveal his own knowledge of the case: “because in his will there was the request that his story be made known, without causing problems to anyone, I acknowledged that it was my duty to contribute to the truth, as much as possible.”

The story of Mass Contact began in 1956 when Bruno Sammaciccia and two friends met with two mysterious individuals who said they were extraterrestrials. One was over 8 foot tall while the other was just over 3 foot tall. Sammaciccia and his friends, initially skeptical, were eventually taken into a large underground base where they saw more of the alleged extraterrestrials. They also saw their children being educated, some with advanced technologies they used, and their space ships. Finally convinced that they were really having physical contact with extraterrestrials, Sammaciccia and his friends decided to help the extraterrestrials. They began with material support by arranging for truckloads of fruit, food and other material to be transported and unloaded at an extraterrestrial base. Eventually, two truckloads of supplies were being delivered every month to bases in different regions of Italy where Sammaciccia and his assistants lived.

Sammaciccia describes the various people involved in the case and who had direct meetings with the extraterrestrials. The individuals involved grew over time as Sammaciccia assisted the extraterrestrials in helping prepare humanity for the reality of human looking extraterrestrials from other planets. Breccia said that he personally met and interviewed almost 80 people who worked with or met the extraterrestrials. Most involved were in Italy, but others were from other countries that also had been exposed to the same group of extraterrestrials.

Sammaciccia finally described a violent conflict between two factions of extraterrestrials trying to influence humanity’s development and future. While his ‘Friendship’ faction promoted cosmic unity and ethical development, the other faction promoted technological development at all cost. This led to periodic violent clashes between the factions. Eventually, the underground bases of Sammaciccia’s extraterrestrial friends was destroyed in 1978. Survivors had to leave the Earth but promised to return at a future time when humanity was ready for a more ethical future of humanity interacting with extraterrestrials.

Sammaciccia’s astounding story sounds like an episode from Star Trek, but it is well supported by documentary evidence, some of Italy’s finest UFO researchers, and first hand witnesses of the events described. Some of the witnesses were leading statesmen, scholars and high society figures from Italy and Europe. According to Breccia, a general in the Italian Carabineers, Gaetano Tamborrini Orsini, an additional three Italian military generals, as well as diplomats, Nobel Laureates and politicians were all involved. This reveals that Italian and foreign authorities were closely monitoring the situation. Significantly, the Italian authorities did nothing to close down the bases and apparently did not interfere in private efforts to keep the extraterrestrials supplied. The only condition appeared to be that the witnesses keep their contacts secret. A condition that the main witness, Bruno Sammaciccia, insisted upon until his death in 2003. The Friendship case helps confirm the accounts of Adamski, Fry, Menger and ‘Hernandez’ that human looking extraterrestrials have blended into human society and have walked among us.

A possibly related and more recent case involves Italian contactee Maurizio Cavallo who had been contacted by extraterrestrials first in 1959 when he was seven, and later in September 1981. He says he was telepathically summoned to travel to a remote location where he met with and boarded an extraterrestrial vehicle. He then began to have a series of meetings with the extraterrestrials who said they came from the planet Clarion. On one occasion when he was aboard an extraterrestrial vehicle, he met with an extraterrestrial called Suell.

Unlike the ‘Clarions’ he had met with so far, Suell could communicate verbally in flawless Italian. In addition, Suell was dressed in normal civilian attire unlike his companions who wore distinctive uniforms. Cavallo was told that this was to enable Suell to integrate into the population. In the spring of 1986, Cavallo says that he was telepathically summoned to travel to a large northern Italian city where he knew he would meet with an extraterrestrial living among us. He writes: “That big town I will not mention, for many obvious and less obvious reasons, linked with the extraterrestrial visitors who live and work among us, enwrapped me and intimidated me.” Upon entering a crowded bar, Cavallo waited a long time and began to doubt whether he had correctly interpreted the telepathic directions he had received. Then it happened: “Somebody knocked from outside on the shop window, made a quick gesture and ran into the crowded bar. “Am I late?” said Suell, looking amused. All my fighting emotions broke down in that moment and I had to force myself not to cry. He came closer and said he had been delayed by a trite bureaucratic problem. So I learned he was employed in a public administration office … He added he had his car parked outside and with that we had to go to his friends who were waiting for us.”

Cavallo was then driven by Suell to a remote location approximately 75 miles away where they disembarked and walked some distance in the woods to a ‘safe house’. There they met with another two extraterrestrial companions of Suell who claim to have been on Earth for almost eighty years. The extraterrestrials occupied what appeared to be a typical rural dwelling, but had a secret underground greenhouse where they grew vegetables with extraordinary nutritional value: “I could not say how deep we went, I remember we walked for several minutes before arriving to a strongly illuminated dome-shaped space. It was an immense place in which its structure, totally built in a wonderful transparent material, permitted me to see the external rock enwrapping it. Innumerable sections intersected that place and each one contained infinite quantities and qualities of plants and vegetable forms.”

Cavallo was supplied photographs of Suell and other extraterrestrials he had met. Cavallo’s case has been investigated by Italian-American journalist Paola Harris who finds him to be credible. As in the cases of Menger, Adamski and ‘Hernandez’, extraterrestrials can easily blend into modern society to take ordinary jobs and drive cars. Furthermore, Cavallo’s account is very similar to the Friendship case and suggests he was dealing with the same group of human-looking extraterrestrials based in northern Italy. It is not only contactees that have discussed extraterrestrials living among us. The former Russian Prime Minister Medvedev has made candid off-air remarks confirming that such phenomenon is real. His comments, and those of the contactees, are supported by the testimonials of highly credible whistleblowers.