InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
GIGLIO ISLAND - Italy's cruise ship tragedy will take its place in the already eventful history of a Mediterranean island with a spectacular but treacherous coastline that has seen centuries of naval battles and shipwrecks.
The Costa Concordia luxury liner lies keeled over on a rocky promontory off the Tuscan island of Giglio that is dominated by a tower built by the Medici rulers of Florence in the 16th century to protect against pirate incursions.
Dozens of survivors on that horrific night of Friday, January 13 clambered up the rocks to the tower, which has been turned into a villa now owned by an aristocratic family descended from a famous 11th-century Italian countess.
In the wake of the tragedy, the villa's extensive grounds have also been trampled by journalists and curious locals as the coastline here is only around 30 metres (98 feet) from the wreck of the giant 17-deck cruise ship.
"There are also remains of several Roman ships down there," said Mario Brandaglia, an artist and historian from Giglio who now lives in Florence but was on the island that night and helped ferry dozens of survivors to safety.
"I've dived there a lot. The Roman ships probably crashed in the same way as the Costa Concordia and were brought to that spot by the current," said Brandaglia, who has written dozens of academic texts about the island.
"I think this accident marks an epochal change for the island. It has opened it up, it has put it on the international map. We feel a bit special being islanders but now we've realized the rest of the world needs us," he said.
Brandaglia suggested that local authorities should set up a museum about the shipwreck with some of the discarded life vests and personal belongings strewn on the shore, as well as video and audio footage of survivors' stories.
"It would allow historians of the future -- in 50 or 100 years -- to research and study this event," he said, adding: "I think that seeing an event of this scale unfold before our eyes has made the island feel less isolated."
Giglio was once an important trading hub for the Romans and a major producer of olive oil and wine and then became a strategic outpost fought over by the armies of the city states of Florence, Genoa and Pisa in the Middle Ages.
But its economy now depends almost solely on tourism and many here are concerned that any pollution from the Costa Concordia could put off tourists.
Another worry is that salvage work on the stricken ship could take months or even years, attracting curious observers but not the usual holidaymakers.
The most vulnerable part of the shore is owned by the Marquis of Canossa -- whose 11th century ancestor Matilda of Canossa once ruled swathes of central Italy and sided with Pope Gregory VII against the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV.
Henry IV's capitulation to the pope in January 1077 took place at Matilda's castle of Canossa with the emperor barefoot and kneeling before Gregory VII.
The phrase "going to Canossa" has come to mean humiliating penitence.
The marquis' grounds are just opposite Giglio's picturesque harbour and are part of the Tuscan archipelago nature reserve and marine sanctuary.
The environment ministry has warned the area is now under threat and that toxic substances from the ship may already be leaking into the sea.
The bigger fear, however, is if the massive ship's tanks filled with 2,380 tons of heavy oil fuel and 200 tons of diesel were to rupture.
Giglio's rich history has already seen its share of crises including an epic naval battle in 1241 between Frederick II and the Genoese fleet, which ended with the Holy Roman Emperor's victory and Genoese ships dashed on the rocks.
A pirate attack in 1799 was successfully repelled by the local inhabitants and the date -- November 18 -- is celebrated with a yearly procession around the walls of a formidable fortress built on the island's highest point.
