- These folks showed that real people can have a heart as big as Samwise Gamgee.
They found a long-lost ring buried in a river. Donning their travel cloaks and walking sticks, they embarked on a journey to take the ring back to where it belongs, once and for all.
This isn’t The Lord of the Rings, although the events were certainly inspired by the fantasy classic. Instead, this is the tale of three Italian friends going on a quest to make things right.
Irishman Patrick Mohr was vacationing with his family in Italy. While playing in a river, it slipped off his finger and disappeared into the murky water.
While his family searched, they asked Filippo Palagi, Nicola Malloggi, and Edoardo Poggi for help. The three friends kept looking even after Mohr had given up.
Several days later, the trio struck gold – literally. They found Mohr’s ring and decided to return in.
So, they flew to Ireland to give the man back that which was his. However, inspired by the Tolkien-ish ring quest, they made the occasion even more memorable by dressing up as hobbits.
And much like the Fellowship of the Ring, their shared experience formed an unbreakable bond between the Italians and Mohr.
The Precious is Lost
Earlier this year, Mohr, his wife, and their three daughters had gone for a vacation in Italy. On the fateful day, they were staying near Bagni di Lucca in Tuscany.
Mohr had taken his children to play in a nearby river. But when he caught one of the girls as she jumped off a river rock, his 18-carat gold wedding ring stirred.
The ring had a will of its own. It betrayed Mohr, sliding off his finger and vanishing into the river.
Unlike Isildur, Mohr fortunately wasn’t immediately slaughtered by marauding orcs. But he did feel a chill running through his spine as if a Morgul blade had bit into his flesh.
“I just stood there a little bit paralyzed with instant knowledge it’s gone. I didn’t see much hope in it,” Mohr told the CBC.
He clarified later that he wasn’t worried about the gold or the ring’s monetary value. Instead, he’d lost a physical memento of his 16-year marriage, which stung more than any financial loss.
Long Search
Despite his dim hopes of finding the ring, Mohr and his family set to combing the river bottom. However, the water wasn’t exactly clear, and they had no idea where to look.
Mohr’s wife walked over to the three Italian guys who had also come to enjoy the riverside. They were Palagi, Malloggi, and Poggi.
She asked the three if they had any swimming goggles she could borrow and maybe spot the ring underwater. Sadly, the Italians had no such thing, but they offered to join the search.
Eventually, Mohr gave up – but the Italians didn’t. After swapping contact info with the Irish family, they kept searching for the ring using their kayak to avoid disturbing the sandy river bottom.
After two days of kayak searching, they changed strategies. The three secured themselves to rocks with ropes, donned scuba masks, and dove into a section of the river where the current was particularly strong.
Finally, Maloggi spotted something glinting faintly in the mud. He grabbed the object, and lo and behold!
It was Mohr’s ring.
‘Hi Sméagol’
Nine days after losing the ring, Mohr received a text message from an unknown number. Reading it, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Hi Sméagol, look what we found,” the message read. Accompanying it was a picture of Mohr’s lost ring.
“It’s such an improbable story,” said Mohr. “The guys most certainly didn’t have to look for us, and when they found it, they wanted to get in touch with me to tell me.”
Now, there was only one problem left – taking the ring to Mount Do-… Sorry, Mohr. After all, the ring was in Italy while Mohr’s family had returned to their home in Ireland.
However, if you’ve ever known an Italian, you’re aware that they’re nothing if not stubborn. Even the 1,000-mile distance couldn’t deter the Italian friends, and they booked a flight to return the ring.
And they did so in style.
“They approached me, all three dressed like hobbits, playing music from the Lord of the Rings to hand me back the ring,” Mohr recalled.
To repay their incredible kindness, Mohr invited the Italians to stay at his house and took them on a vacation tour of his home region. Neither he nor Palagi, Malloggi, or Poggi can quite believe how the whole thing played out, but they’re certainly glad it did so.
“Before … we never knew each other. Now, we have a family in Ireland,” Palagi said.