LIFE: Costa Scruise Up

SARONNO, Italy – Maybe if it hadn’t been Friday the 13th, things would have turned out differently for Captain Schettino and his ship, the Costa Concordia, but it wasn’t to be. Thanks to recently recovered satellite navigation data we now what he did just before the cruise ship hit the rocks and began to capsize. 

Oh Captain, My Captain

The initial impact with the underwater rocks happened because he decided to deviate from the prescribed route – an error he has admitted. The new information shows that he knew the ship was in trouble and in an attempt to make evacuation easier, he performed a sort of nautical hand-brake turn to get closer to the island of Giglio. That maneuver is thought to have subsequently saved lives.

While the Captain has not publically come out and said why he wanted to sail close to the Island, a former Costa Cruise officer, who wants to remain anonymous, told me that a sail by salute to former and existing Costa crew members and officers is a well-known tradition at Costa. A Facebook posting by someone living on the island confirms they were waiting for the sail by salute.  

 The Costa Concordia at home in Savona (Photo by Victoria R.)

After the impact the ship headed away from Giglio towards the mainland. With the ship in total darkness, passengers were told that there was an electrical failure which the engineers were trying to fix. Some have accused the captain of misleading them, but, with 4,200 people on board, not panicking them until the extent of the damage was known seems understandable.

What is not clear is the Captain’s apparent failure to notify port or coastguard authorities of what had occurred although he claims that he did. He says he called the Admiral three times to report the incident and ask for help, but his calls were never returned. This has been denied by Costa Cruise Lines.

Dining Room Costa Concordia

The judge's view is that the captain, due to incompetence and negligence, underestimated the extent of the damage and failed to notify the coastal authorities of the accident in timely fashion. The emergency services center first learned of the seriousness of the situation through a passengers' cell phone calls to land. He said the captain could not help being immediately aware of the seriousness of the damage due to the ever increasingly evident tilt of the ship and because he was advised by the crew of the great amount of water being taken in.

Prosecutor’s transcripts published here in Italy show that Captain Schettino said that 

immediately after hitting the rock he sent two of his officers to the engine room to check on the state of the vessel. As soon as he realized the damage caused to the ship, he called the director of operations for Costa Cruises, Roberto Ferrarini.

The Spa on the Concordia

"I told him: I've got myself into a mess, there was a contact with the seabed. I am telling you the truth, we passed by Giglio and there was an impact," Mr Schettino said. "I can't remember how many times I called him in the following hour and 15 minutes. In any case, I am certain that I informed Ferrarini about everything in real time," he said.

However, Costa's chief executive, Pierluigi Foschi, told Italian state television that the company spoke to the captain at 10.05pm, some 20 minutes after the ship ran aground, but could not offer the ship suitable assistance because the captain's description "did not correspond to the truth".

Concordia's Room with a View

What emerges from the satellite "best guess" tracking of the ship's course is that 11 minutes after impact, at 9.53pm, the ship slowed to about three knots. A few minutes later, as the ship took on water, the captain tried to turn it back towards the island's port, but the ship started to tilt and sink. According to the satellite tracking record, the ship was listing by as much as 20 degrees to starboard, the opposite side of where the 150ft gash had been opened up. At 10.10pm the Concordia came to rest 50 meters from shore, listing badly, and the evacuation order was given.

The evacuation was described as chaotic but with several thousand people trying to get off the ship in the dark, it could hardly be anything else. Coming into question is Captain Schettino's role during this unfortunate event. He says he helped passengers into lifeboats, gave one his own life jacket and, at some point, he tripped and fell into a lifeboat, which seems highly unlikely. An initial reports show he left the ship around 11:30pm, when there were still about 300 people onboard. That resulted in the now notorious conversation with Captain Gregorio de Falco, the senior coastguard officer, in which he was ordered to go back on board.  

 The Dirty Details

Mr Schettino, a 52 year old native of Castellammare di Stabia, a town near Naples, is now under house arrest and faces possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. He has been suspended and notified that the company will no longer pay his legal fees. In fact, Costa has signed on as a civil party in the prosecution. The former Costa Cruise officer I spoke with said in his opinion Costa is using Schettino as a scapegoat, not that Schettino didn’t make a lot of mistakes, but the blame is not entirely his.

In the meantime the search and rescue efforts for survivors and bodies continues and the operation to remove the 500,000 gallons of fuel in the Concordia’s tanks is on hold, an environmental disaster waiting to happen.  It may take up to four weeks to pump the remaining fuel from the ship. As the ship is no longer functioning, the heavy fuel oil can get thick and viscous, making it harder to pump. To remedy this, a steam-heated element is put through the pipeline to warm the oil, making pumping much faster. The oil will be pumped to a barge and then to a larger offloading vessel.

Who's Sorry Now?

Sucking out the oil creates a vacuum, so another hole is made lower down the tank to allow seawater to be pumped in, replacing the oil. This also ensures extracting the oil does not cause the ship to shift position on the seabed.


As for the Italians, they don’t know what to think. 

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LIFE: My Neighbor Eddie

SARONNO, Italy - My neighbor Eddie, is a world traveler. He has driven to Russia, to India and even all the way to China. On his first trip to the U.S.A. he drove coast to coast, stopping off along the way to visit the Grand Canyon and lose a little money in Las Vegas. 

Off Limits -  Milan's Galleria

He has visited the fjords in Norway, had lunch near the statue of the little Mermaid in Copenhagen and enjoyed a leisurely dinner in Helsinki. Just last month he was in Spain and Gibraltar, and now he’s making plans to visit Australia right after the Christmas holidays. 

But there is one thing Eddie has never seen: the little streets and alleyways that make up the heart of so many cities. He’s never had the luxury of walking along a sandy beach in Southern California or exploring Germany’s Black Forest, or even seeing the side streets of Milan. Eddie is a paraplegic.   

He contracted polio when he was a kid back in the 1950’s, literally weeks before the Salk vaccine was approved. It left him without the use of his legs. But he gets around.

Out of the Car and Into the Segway

Eddie has fiercely resisted using a wheelchair, for him it would be an admission of defeat, so if he’s not in the car, he’s on crutches. But navigating on crutches presents problems. For one, he can’t carry anything, it’s difficult to push a grocery cart in the store, he can’t go up or down stairs without risking life and limb, and because of the pulmonary damage he has suffered, he can’t walk more than a few feet.  

So it’s no wonder he was anxious to tell me about his recent trip to Savona. (see http://thisitalianlife.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-road-savory-savona.html for more on Savona). But Eddie didn't drive all the way down there for the sun or the sea, or the food either, he was there to see a revolutionary product produced by Genny Mobility, a wheelchair Segway. 

Paolo Badano - The Man With the Liberating Idea

“What an experience,” he said. “Of all the countries I have visited I’ve never seen the center of the cities, I could never wander the streets and do what I did in Savona last week. Using the Segway we covered about 5 kilometers, (3 miles) going all around the city, up and down streets and through the squares, and it was exhilarating. I had total mobility. If I leaned forward, I went forward, if I leaned back, I went backwards, I could even go around in circles if I wanted to.”

The Regular Segways That Inspired Paolo Badano

The wheelchair Segway Eddie is so enthusiastic about was engineered by a young Italian from Savona, Paolo Badano. Paolo was in an accident back in 1995 and has been confined to a wheelchair ever since. Frustrated with his situation, he was always looking for a way to improve his mobility: but all his ideas were all based on the traditional wheelchair model, and none of them were particularly liberating.

 A Whole New World of Experiences

Then, a few years ago the Segway was introduced in Italy and Paolo started thinking. If the self-balancing Segway can transport a person standing on it, why wouldn’t it work if the person was sitting down? What he found was that it does. (See Paolo and his dog on the Segway at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KDVL9NfzgE

It was the Segway that Paolo designed that Eddie drove to Savona to see, and then fell in love with.  So now Eddie is plotting and scheming, trying to figure out how he can afford to buy a GennyMobility Segway. I hope he can. For such a free spirit, who through no fault of his own has spent most of his life without legs, it would a most wonderful, and liberating gift.

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ON THE ROAD: Savory Savona

This is another in a series of monthly travel articles inspired by a New York Times article on 31 places to see in 2010. All of the towns on my list are in Italy, most are small, rich in history and art and for the most part off the beaten track which, for me, makes them all the more interesting.

SAVONA, Italy - Savona isn’t your typical Italian Riviera hotspot. It’s an old, serious, seafaring kind of place, not glamorous, not slick and not particularly tourist friendly either.

Savona Harbor

A few years ago you wouldn’t have given this town of 78,000 inhabitants a second glance as you sped along to, or from, the south of France. But things are different now. Savona has become a major kick off point for Costa Cruises, which means thousands of people are passing through town every week. It doesn't make the town any more glamourous, but then again Vicki, my eight year old sidekick and I are not looking for anything glamorous. We are on a mission. Her plan is to take photographs of what we see today and then write about them in a journal. My plan is to keep this curious little person out of trouble and sneak in a few photos myself.

Cathedral of Savona

Daniele, Vicki’s father, gives us a ride into town and drops us off near Piazza Sixtus IV. Before we head for Vicki’s favorite Savona site, the Pancaldo tower, I want to see the nearby Baroque Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. It takes a little convincing to get Vicki to go in, but in the end she’s a pretty good sport about it, and she even manages to generate a little interest in the Renaissance wooden choir. But when I suggest visiting the Sistine chapel next door, she digs in her heels. The fact that two popes were born in nearby Albissola, Sixtus IV (1471-1484) and Julius II (1503-1513), and that it was Pope Sixtus IV who commissioned both Sistine Chapels, the one in Rome and the one next to the Cathedral in Savona, means nothing to her. It is not a battle I’m going to win.
We head back to Savona’s main street, Via Paleocapa, a long, 18th century porticoed street that runs from the harbor right through the heart of town. Along the way Vicki is taking pictures of everything that catches her eye, the tall look-out towers in the historic center, the soaring cactus that decorate the fronts of buildings, the miniature bronze cast of the town so the blind can see what the town looks like, the many boats docked in the harbor and the Leon Pancaldo Tower.

Via Paleocapa

Vicki is fascinated with Leon Pancaldo. Leon was about her age when he set sail with Ferdinand Magellan on his now famous expedition around the world. Leon was also one of 18 surviving sailors out of a crew of more than 200 who lived to talk it.

His stories of seeing a ‘camel without a hump,’ and a ‘black goose’ that had to be skinned instead of plucked left the locals thinking the trip had really done the poor boy in. But now we know he wasn’t daft, just one of the first Europeans to see a llama and a penguin when Magellen’s ship reached the most southern tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego, the land of fire.

Trattoria Vino and Farinata

Later that evening Vicki, her parents and I head back into the old town for dinner at Farinata and Vino. It’s a hot summer night and we are lucky we don’t have to wait very long inside the trattoria entrance where overheated cooks are pulling and pushing large round pans of farinata in and out of the blazing open oven. Our reservations are for 7 PM, uncommonly early for Italy, and they tell us have to be out by 8:30, also uncommon for Italy. But this is a happening place and they are booked to the max.
It’s the farinata that draws the crowds. Farinata is a simple dish of chickpea flour, water and olive oil baked into a thin pancake, and along with pesto, it is one of the major components of Liguria’s famed cucina povera. Vicki’s father orders another Ligurian summer specialty, room temperature minestrone with pesto while Tracy, Vicki’s mother, and I order fish. After a plateful of farinata, Vicki can barely manage to eat a shrimp or two from her mother’s plate. As we sit there I realize I can’t even count how many times over the past 18 years we have sat together like this and shared a meal.

Crowd in Vino and Farinata

The one place Vicki and I didn’t get to was the Fortezza del Priamar, an imposing stone fortress at the edge of the historic center. I think she would have liked walking through the massive fort, especially if I could have come up with a swashbuckling tale or two about the pirates who were held prisoners here.

Back in the 16th century when the Fortezza was built the Mediterranean Sea was not the playground of the rich and richer it is today, but a watery nest of marauding pirates and armed ships from rival city states looking to attack Savona. The fort stood strong for two hundred years, never challenged until the mid 1700’s when it was attacked by troops of the French Dukes of Savoy. The invading army won the battle and Savona was absorbed into the territories controlled by the Savoy, who would later become the Italy’s first, and last, royal family.

There is a grittiness to Savona that may not appeal to everyone but if you’re the type of person who likes to explore less touristy places, it may be just the town for you. What I like best about it is that there are no pretenses here. What you see is what you get.

LIFE: Travels with Vicki

SARONNO, Italy - I learned an important lesson last week. Keeping up with an 8 year old is a lot like trying to keep up with cricket. In a word: tricky.

Vicki in Savona, Italy

It all began when friend Tracy asked me if I would “hang out” with her daughter Victoria while she and husband Daniele went through and cleaned out their recently sold apartment on the Riviera. Since I am always happy to spend time with them, and I wanted to write some articles about the Riviera of the Palms anyway, I figured it was a win win situation.

Park near Savona Harbor Photo by Victoria R.

Before I left for the Riviera I looked around for a couple of disposable cameras to give to Vicki. I figured she might like the idea of taking photos and then writing something about them in a journal. It would be a nice way of remembering her time in Italy since they live in New York and there is no telling when they will make it back to Italy now that the apartment is sold.

Bridge to Who Knows Where Photo by Victoria R.

It was a good idea, but both Kodak shops in Saronno were out of disposable cameras. No problem I thought. Surely I would find some at the Milan train station, but I struck out there as well. But there was still hope. The Riviera of the Palms is a happening place in the summer and certainly I would find a disposable camera or two there.

Savona is Home Port to Costa Cruises Photo by Victoria R.

But I didn't even have to look. Vicki's father came to the rescue and offered to loan her his digital camera. She was thrilled and immediately began snapping photos and pressing all the bits and bobs, rewinding and deleting and doing only God know what else like she was born with a digital camera in her hand. I was starting to feel like I’d been living in a cave.

Her Favorite Site: Leon Pancaldo Tower Photo by Victoria R.

So the plan was to go into Savona, walk around and take photos. Simple enough. Or it would have been simple enough if I had had two heads, four eyes, six arms and eight legs. Vicki, aka Little Lois Lane, would not be slowed down. She was here, she was there, she was up the stairs and over the bridge as quick as a spittlebug, snapping photos like she had a 2 PM deadline and it was already 1:58.

Painted houses of Savona Photo by Victoria R.

But what was really getting my goat is that her photos were coming out way better than mine. The kid really has an eye. Of course my excuse was she didn’t have to guard herself, she was free to flit and fly wherever the wind took her, while I, as guardian of this angel child, was snaggled down with a serious responsibility. My dreamy idea of calmly taking photos of Vicki skipping merrily though the cobbled streets of Savona was quickly replaced by the emergence of some ogre guard lady who was verging a migraine trying to keep tract of a whirling dervish child.

Another Tower in Savona Photo by Victoria R.

While we stood in the middle of Via Paleocapa, Savona’s main street, her yelling that I was “so mean” because I insisted on holding her hand as we crossed busy streets, hundreds of Pulitzer Prize winning shots were passing before my very eyes. If I could have figured out how to take photos with one hand and one eye while keeping my other hand and other eye on her, as she somehow manages to do, I might have been less distressed. But then again, maybe not.

Vicki doing her One Hand One Eye Trick

In the end we both got some great photos. The ones you see on this post are all by Vicki, except for the photos of Vicki of course. And if you think her photos are as good as I think they are, please leave Vicki a comment of encouragement to continue taking photos, with or without me.

All comments and observations welcomed, post below or send to thisitalianlife@yahoo.com