Amicizia (contact case)
The Amicizia case (also known as W-56, Italian for "Friendship") is a series of alleged extraterrestrial contact events beginning in 1956 at Rocca Pia castle in eastern Italy on the Adriatic coast, involving a group of human-looking extraterrestrial beings who maintained a large underground base beneath the castle and formed a long-term partnership with a selected group of Italian civilians and officials.
Initial contact
The contacts were initiated when a mystic named Sama and a companion were led by invisible-written notes to the castle, where two beings descended from the battlements — one approximately nine feet tall and the other approximately three feet tall — who expressed a desire to form a long-term partnership with a selected group of humans to convey a message of peace.
Contact group
The human contact group eventually grew to include a general of the Carabinieri, two cardinals, scientists, and artists.
The W-56 beings
The W-56 beings described themselves as a federation of humanoid races from multiple worlds, claimed the humanoid form is universal, and used the term Waseda (universal friendship and love) for their relationship with humanity.
Underground base
The W-56 allegedly maintained a large underground base beneath Rocca Pia purportedly extending roughly 20 kilometers under the Adriatic Sea, accessible by craft that reportedly molecularly dissolved the ground to enter and exit, sometimes visible to onlookers as objects emerging from or diving into solid earth.
CT attack and departure (1978)
In 1978, the base was reportedly attacked by antagonistic cyborg-like entities the W-56 referred to as the CTs (Contrarians) — a mechanical-biological species oriented toward power and disruption. The W-56 departed, radioing the port authority of Pescara to warn fishing boats away from the departure area because of the turbulence their craft would create leaving the ocean.
Researchers
The case was documented by Stefano Breccia, an Italian engineer who led the contact group after Sama's death and authored 50 Years of Amicizia (Mass Contacts). Paola Harris credited Salla with bringing Breccia to the United States — the only U.S. conference Breccia ever attended — and reported that after his death Breccia left her his presentation materials and the recorded voices of the W-56 beings. After Breccia's passing, Damiano di Alessandro became the principal spokesperson for the case and included Come Carpentier de Gourdon in an Italian documentary about the events.
The Amicizia case is cited as part of a broader pattern of Nordic-type beings integrating with human societies, comparable to the Howard Menger case in the United States where a contactee assisted Nordic-appearing beings in assimilating into American society. Harris connected the case to the Chilean Friendship case and the broader Space Brothers contact tradition, noting that human-type beings walking off spacecraft were the dominant pattern before the Hill abduction introduced the Gray archetype.
The Amicizia case is also one of several documented instances of human-looking extraterrestrials establishing prolonged contact with civilian groups, a pattern also noted by Timothy Good.