Within Alpine UFO Files
Inside the Region's Long Running Private UFO Archive
A long-running private catalogue preserves reports missed by official statistics, although much of its supporting material remains hard to inspect.
On this page
- How the regional catalogue developed
- What private archives preserve
- Why access and verification still matter
Page outline Jump by section
Introduction
Alessandro Cortellazzi’s catalogue is one of the most important but least easily inspected sources for the UFO history of Trentino-Alto Adige. Cortellazzi, a Trento-based investigator active since 1975, has spent decades collecting regional sighting reports, newspaper material and investigation records. His work preserves cases that never entered Italy’s official reporting system and might otherwise have disappeared with old local newspapers, private correspondence or fading witness memories.[CISU]cisu.orgAlessandro CortellazziAlessandro Cortellazzi - CISU - Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici…
Its value, however, must be separated from the strength of the individual reports it contains. A catalogue records that a claim was made; it does not automatically prove that the reported object was extraordinary. Much of Cortellazzi’s underlying regional material is not publicly searchable case by case, so outsiders cannot yet consistently compare original testimony with weather records, aircraft movements, astronomical data or later explanations. The archive therefore expands the known history of sightings in Trentino and South Tyrol while leaving important questions about access, classification and verification unresolved.
How the regional catalogue developed
Cortellazzi began collecting reports in 1975, while still a teenager. He belonged to the National UFO Centre until 1985 and was later among the founding members of the Italian Centre for UFO Studies, generally known as CISU. He served on CISU’s governing board from 1989 to 1992 and coordinated the editing of its internal case-review publication between July 1988 and December 1991. According to his CISU biography, he has continued investigating sightings, particularly in the region where he lives.[CISU]cisu.orgAlessandro CortellazziAlessandro Cortellazzi - CISU - Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici…
The original geographical focus was Trentino-Alto Adige, including South Tyrol. The collection was subsequently extended to Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, creating a broader north-eastern Italian body of material. This expansion matters because unusual aerial reports do not respect administrative borders. A luminous object observed from a Trentino valley may also be reported from Veneto, while a re-entering spacecraft or high-altitude aircraft can cross several regions within minutes. A wider catalogue can reveal that supposedly separate local incidents were probably observations of the same event.[CISU]cisu.orgAlessandro CortellazziAlessandro Cortellazzi - CISU - Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici…
Cortellazzi’s work also formed part of a larger CISU structure. The organisation uses local representatives to investigate reports and compile provincial or regional catalogues. These local collections feed into national efforts to record Italian sightings, rather than functioning merely as personal lists of spectacular stories. CISU says its regional investigators prepare analyses as well as catalogues, while standard questionnaires and a methodology manual are intended to make reports more comparable.[CISU]cisu.orgRappresentanti localiRappresentanti locali
Evidence of Cortellazzi’s role appears in older specialist publications as well as in current CISU material. An archived issue of the organisation’s internal news publication noted that he produced a circular for UFO researchers in the north-eastern regions. Other CISU records credit him with contributing material to investigations and regional case discussions. Such references do not reveal the full contents of his Trentino-Alto Adige archive, but they show that it was connected to a continuing network of case collection rather than assembled retrospectively from recent internet accounts.[UFO Magazine Archive]ufomagazines.comNotizie UFO', 'UFO', and 'Rassegna Casistica' are sent to all members, while 'Notiziario Archivio Stampa' is sent to 'sostenitori' (supp…
What a private archive can preserve
The clearest reason for the catalogue’s importance is that official statistics contain only reports that reached the authorities through the prescribed channels. Since the national sighting wave of 1978, the Italian Air Force has been responsible for collecting and checking official reports. Today, a witness is asked to complete a form and submit it through the Carabinieri. The Air Force then looks for links with natural phenomena or human activity and publishes investigated cases; a report remains officially unidentified when no technical or natural explanation is established.[Aeronautica Militare]aeronautica.difesa.itAeronautica Militare OVNIAeronautica MilitareOVNI - Aeronautica Militare…
That procedure inevitably captures only a fraction of what people say they have seen. Many witnesses contact a newspaper, an observatory, a local researcher or nobody at all. Others report an incident years later, when an official technical investigation would be difficult. A private regional archive can therefore preserve several kinds of material that formal statistics tend to miss:
- reports sent directly to investigators rather than to the police or Air Force;
- local newspaper articles that were never incorporated into a government file;
- follow-up interviews containing than the first published account;
- drawings, photographs, correspondence and notes about possible explanations;
- clusters of reports from neighbouring valleys or provinces;
- weak, mistaken or incomplete sightings that still help reconstruct periods of heightened public attention.
The difference between official and private coverage is visible in the surviving figures. The Air Force’s published table for 1991–2000 lists eight reports for Trentino-Alto Adige: one in 1992, two in each of 1994, 1995 and 1996, and one in 1997. The national total was 112. Those numbers are useful for describing what entered the official system, but they cannot safely be treated as a complete census of everything reported in the region.[Aeronautica Militare]aeronautica.difesa.itAeronautica Militare Presentazione standard di Power PointAeronautica Militare Presentazione standard di Power Point
Cortellazzi’s catalogue is therefore most valuable as a record of reporting history. It may show when certain places generated repeated claims, when local media interest increased and whether several witnesses described a common stimulus. It can also preserve mundane identifications. A catalogue that includes balloons, planets, aircraft, satellites and space debris alongside unresolved cases is analytically more useful than a collection restricted to dramatic stories.
CISU’s investigation manual supports this broader approach. It gives guidance on interviewing witnesses, preparing investigation reports and handling special cases involving photographs, alleged ground traces or unusual entities. The manual’s purpose is to create common procedures, not to assume that every report describes an exotic craft.[UFO.it]ufo.itOpen source on ufo.it.
A catalogue is not a list of confirmed mysteries
Readers should be careful with the word “catalogue”. In UFO literature it can mean a database of reports, press references and claims of widely varying quality. An entry may represent a detailed investigation with several witnesses, or little more than a short newspaper item giving no precise time, direction or duration.
CISU’s emerging national catalogue illustrates this distinction. The organisation announced in late 2025 that its complete holdings covered about 43,000 Italian reports and notices, while the publicly accessible test version initially contained only a little over 500 cases from 2024. The online index was limited to basic fields such as date, time, place and type. CISU said regional and provincial catalogue managers had contributed to the wider project.[CISU]cisu.orgCat: il catalogo di segnalazioni italiane di avvistamenti UFOCisuCat: il catalogo di segnalazioni italiane di avvistamenti UFO - CISU - Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici…
The scale is impressive, but a high case count does not mean tens of thousands of unexplained objects. Large historical catalogues often include duplicates, low-information press stories, reports later identified and events retained because they document public or media interest. CISU itself has previously described national collection work as including reports derived from precarious sources.[CISU]cisu.orgOpen source on cisu.org.
For Cortellazzi’s regional archive, the key unanswered questions are therefore not simply “How many sightings does it contain?” but:
- Does each record identify its original source?
- Are contemporary witness statements preserved?
- Are newspaper reports distinguished from directly investigated cases?
- Are probable explanations and later revisions recorded?
- Can duplicate observations of a single event be linked?
- Is there a clear distinction between unidentified, insufficiently documented and positively identified cases?
Without those details, totals can exaggerate regional activity. Ten newspaper articles may describe one widely visible rocket event, while a single carefully documented observation may be more evidentially useful than dozens of brief reports.
Why public access remains limited
CISU accepts reports through questionnaires and states that it protects witness confidentiality. That is reasonable: witnesses may not want their names, addresses or personal experiences placed online. Privacy can encourage people to report incidents candidly and protects them from unwanted publicity.[CISU]cisu.orgOpen source on cisu.org.
Yet confidentiality does not require the complete closure of historical data. Names and identifying details can be removed while allowing researchers to inspect dates, locations, source types, object descriptions, investigation steps and proposed explanations. At present, Cortellazzi’s regional catalogue is publicly documented mainly through biographical descriptions and references to his activities. A comprehensive online Trentino-Alto Adige case index, linked to redacted source files and investigation outcomes, has not been demonstrated by the accessible material.
This limits independent checking in several ways. A reader cannot readily determine whether a famous account was recorded immediately or reconstructed years later. It may be impossible to see whether witnesses influenced one another, whether the local press altered their descriptions, or whether an investigator considered aircraft, Venus, meteors, balloons or satellite activity. Cases described as “unexplained” may simply lack enough surviving information to test any explanation.
The limitation is especially important in an Alpine region. Mountains can conceal the true horizon, distort impressions of distance and make a light appear to move relative to ridges or clouds. Observations from different valleys may seem inconsistent even when they concern the same distant source. Testing such reports requires precise times, viewing directions, elevations and locations—details that a summary entry may omit.
How the archive could change regional UFO history
Cortellazzi’s catalogue may eventually provide the strongest basis for a detailed chronology of Trentino-Alto Adige sightings. Its long span could help distinguish genuine reporting waves from later memory, repeated publication or the activity of a particularly energetic investigator. It could also show whether apparent hotspots around Bolzano, Trento, the Dolomites or military sites survive once duplicate and explained reports are removed.
The developing CisuCat project offers a possible route towards greater accessibility. CISU describes it as a national database assembled with the help of regional catalogue managers, although its initial public version exposed only basic indexing information. If older regional records are added with source references, investigation status and identification hypotheses, Cortellazzi’s work could become easier to compare with official Air Force data and contemporary astronomical or aviation records.[CISU]cisu.orgCat: il catalogo di segnalazioni italiane di avvistamenti UFOCisuCat: il catalogo di segnalazioni italiane di avvistamenti UFO - CISU - Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici…
Such publication might strengthen some regional cases by revealing early, independent testimony or multiple observations recorded before press coverage. It could weaken others by showing that their details changed over time, that several entries referred to one conventional event or that plausible explanations had already been proposed but were later forgotten.
For now, the fairest assessment is that Cortellazzi’s archive is historically significant but evidentially uneven from a public reader’s perspective. Its longevity, regional focus and connection to organised investigation make it more valuable than a casual online collection. At the same time, the limited visibility of its case files prevents confident conclusions about how many Trentino-Alto Adige reports are genuinely difficult to explain. The catalogue preserves the questions. Wider access to its sources, methods and revisions would be needed before it could reliably answer them.
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Endnotes
1.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Alessandro Cortellazzi
Link:https://www.cisu.org/alessandro-cortellazzi/
Source snippet
Alessandro Cortellazzi - CISU - Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici...
2.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Rappresentanti locali
Link:https://www.cisu.org/chi-siamo/rappresentanti-locali-del-cisu/
3.
Source: ufo.it
Link:https://ufo.it/2015/11/19/manuale-di-indagine-ufo/amp/
4.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Cat: il catalogo di segnalazioni italiane di avvistamenti UFO
Link:https://www.cisu.org/cisucat2/
Source snippet
CisuCat: il catalogo di segnalazioni italiane di avvistamenti UFO - CISU - Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici...
5.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Cat: 43mila avvistamenti italiani
Link:https://www.cisu.org/cisucat-43mila-avvistamenti-italiani/
6.
Source: cisu.org
Link:https://www.cisu.org/page/29/
7.
Source: cisu.org
Link:https://www.cisu.org/contatti/
8.
Source: cisu.org
Link:https://www.cisu.org/page/2/
9.
Source: ufo.it
Title: Peter Kor: un autore critico e poco conosciuto
Link:https://ufo.it/2025/12/09/peter-kor-un-autore-critico-e-poco-conosciuto/
10.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Pasquale Russo Archivi
Link:https://www.cisu.org/tag/pasquale-russo/
11.
Source: ufo.it
Title: UF O: guarda le immagini degli incontri ravvicinati italiani- UFO.it
Link:https://ufo.it/2025/06/10/finalmente-puoi-vedere-gli-incontri-ravvicinati-italiani/
12.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Archivi centrali CISU Archivi
Link:https://www.cisu.org/tag/archivi-centrali-cisu/
13.
Source: cisu.org
Title: UF O in Calabria: il catalogo dei casi
Link:https://www.cisu.org/ufo-in-calabria-il-catalogo-dei-casi/
14.
Source: ufo.it
Title: UF O in Lombardia: avvistamenti e storia di ufologia e ufologi in Lombardia
Link:https://ufo.it/2017/08/22/ufo-ufologi-lombardia/
15.
Source: cisu.org
Link:https://www.cisu.org/rivista/
16.
Source: ufo.it
Title: UF O nazisti: la vera storia dei dischi volanti tedeschi, leggende
Link:https://ufo.it/2016/04/08/la-vera-storia-degli-ufo-nazisti-versione-aggiornata/
17.
Source: ufo.it
Title: La vera storia degli UFO nazisti (vecchia versione)
Link:https://ufo.it/2015/11/27/la-vera-storia-degli-ufo-nazisti/
18.
Source: ufo.it
Title: 1954 cennina ir3
Link:https://ufo.it/2015/11/18/1954-cennina-ir3/
19.
Source: ufo.it
Title: E-Books UFO stranieri
Link:https://ufo.it/2015/11/18/e-books-ufo-stranieri/
20.
Source: ufo.it
Title: Gli Avvistamenti UFO in Italia
Link:https://ufo.it/2015/11/17/gli-avvistamenti-ufo-in-italia/
21.
Source: cisu.org
Link:https://www.cisu.org/
22.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Edoardo Russo, Autore presso CISU
Link:https://www.cisu.org/author/edoardo/
23.
Source: cisu.org
Title: admin, Autore presso CISU
Link:https://www.cisu.org/author/admin/
24.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Avvistamenti UFO in Italia Archivi
Link:https://www.cisu.org/tag/avvistamenti-ufo-in-italia/
25.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Paolo Fiorino Archivi
Link:https://www.cisu.org/tag/paolo-fiorino/
26.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Stefano Innocenti Archivi
Link:https://www.cisu.org/tag/stefano-innocenti/
27.
Source: cisu.org
Title: Paolo Toselli Archivi
Link:https://www.cisu.org/tag/paolo-toselli/
28.
Source: cisu.dk
Link:https://cisu.dk/en/
29.
Source: ufo.it
Title: UF O, Ufologia e avvistamenti UFO Il portale sugli UFO in Italia
Link:https://ufo.it/
30.
Source: ufo.it
Title: Avvistamenti UFO in Italia Archivi
Link:https://ufo.it/category/avvistamenti-ufo-in-italia/
31.
Source: ufo.it
Title: Cosa è il CISU
Link:https://ufo.it/536-2/
32.
Source: ufomagazines.com
Link:https://www.ufomagazines.com/notizie-ufo-cisu-notizie-ufo-no-24/
Source snippet
'Notizie UFO', 'UFO', and 'Rassegna Casistica' are sent to all members, while 'Notiziario Archivio Stampa' is sent to 'sostenitori' (supp...
33.
Source: aeronautica.difesa.it
Title: Aeronautica Militare OVNI
Link:https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/ovni/
Source snippet
Aeronautica MilitareOVNI - Aeronautica Militare...
34.
Source: aeronautica.difesa.it
Title: Aeronautica Militare Presentazione standard di Power Point
Link:https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/INT.Dperiodo1991-2000.pdf
35.
Source: marcianitosverdes.haaan.com
Link:https://marcianitosverdes.haaan.com/page/626/?dur=83368
36.
Source: aeronautica.difesa.it
Link:https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/RIV_4_2020_FIN.pdf
37.
Source: ufomagazines.com
Title: notizie ufo cisu notizie ufo no 38
Link:https://www.ufomagazines.com/notizie-ufo-cisu-notizie-ufo-no-38/
38.
Source: ovni.capital
Link:https://www.ovni.capital/
39.
Source: Wikipedia
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro
40.
Source: Wikipedia
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OVNI
41.
Source: ovni.engineering
Link:https://www.ovni.engineering/
42.
Source: danchurchaid.org
Link:https://www.danchurchaid.org/about-danchurchaid/donors/cisu
43.
Source: dictionary.cambridge.org
Link:https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/french-english/ovni
Additional References
44.
Source: arpnet.it
Link:https://www.arpnet.it/ufo/orland17.htm
Source snippet
L'unico argomento indubbiamente nuovo, la fotografia ottenuta da Cecconi, è stato mal gestito, dandolo in pasto ad una stampa avida di ti...
45.
Source: uapcheck.com
Title: 150 reports in a new book by antonio chiumiento
Link:https://uapcheck.com/it/notizie/id/2506/150-reports-in-a-new-book-by-antonio-chiumiento/
Source snippet
UAP CheckUAP CheckDa Alessandro Cortellazzi... Alessandro Cortellazzi è attivo nell'ufologia italiana dal 1975, raccogliendo e catalogan...
46.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Religious History, UFO Phenomena and Archives
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGbgsKrDZVI
Source snippet
Author/UFO Investigator Richard Lang Extended Interview...
47.
Source: very.co.uk
Link:https://www.very.co.uk/browse/brand–alessandro-zavetti
48.
Source: zavetti.com
Link:https://www.zavetti.com/alessandro-zavetti/?srsltid=AfmBOoo3A-TZTpQWNz-6zcZ80yZGbme39fOQhAeK9prApKe2No2ZKbeU
49.
Source: footasylum.com
Link:https://www.footasylum.com/brands/alessandro-zavetti/?srsltid=AfmBOopvHyhGqTPz1Tps5zb6lK1oW6CAFbss-zy9hcrqRly15XmkQy6A
50.
Source: lawinsider.com
Link:https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/cisu
51.
Source: adaptationataltitude.org
Link:https://adaptationataltitude.org/organisation/cisu/
52.
Source: hqai.org
Link:https://www.hqai.org/en/network/audited-partners/independently-verified-partners/cis/
53.
Source: cisucapital.com
Link:https://www.cisucapital.com/