Ten years have passed since the evening of 13 January 2012, the evening when the Costa Concordia cruise ship, with more than 4,200 people on board, hit one of the rocks in front of the Giglio Island. The impact was terrible and caused a gash in the hull, starting one of the greatest disasters in Italian naval history: 32 dead and 110 wounded. A disaster made even more tragic by the panic that seized those who governed the boat - captain, part of the officers and crew - and all the passengers, left alone to their fate.
The result was a general stampede without any organization, a "save whoever can" that risked doing more damage than the accident itself. In the midst of the chaos of those who desperately tried to save himself, Mario Pellegrini, in those days deputy mayor of the municipality of Isola del Giglio, found himself the first to board the ship to rescue the trapped passengers and, after six hours, the last to return to earth. In the total disaster Pellegrini acted relying on a single certainty: the awareness that all was not lost because his island was close to the damaged boat. The shore was therefore near and with it the salvation.
In the volume "La notte della Concordia" (Bur, 2022, pp. 192, also e-book) Mario Pellegrini reconstructs, together with Sabrina Grementieri, the hectic hours spent trying to save as many people as possible, providing decisive help to avoid a tragedy even more terrible than the one that took place. Through his gaze we are taken into the corridors and bridges of Concordia, experiencing the most dramatic moments live, and with him we meet several heroes of that night, people who put their lives at risk for others and that Pellegrini and Grementieri they tracked down, to tell their stories too. In short, a choral story that avoids the search for the culprits and leaves aside the strange themes that crowded the journalistic and judicial reports following the shipwreck to present us the tragedy of ordinary people. And tell us how few, by choosing to bring out their courage, can make a difference.
So we ask Sabrina Grementieri to tell us how this book was born:
“I met Mario Pellegrini by pure chance, while I was on vacation on the island of Giglio right in his hotel. Although in his time I had followed, like everyone else, the tragic story on television, I did not remember him nor would I have ever brought up the disaster. In fact, it wasn't until the last night of my stay that we found ourselves talking about the shipwreck. I had told him that I had come to Giglio to finish one of my novels and he had confided his desire to leave a written trace of his experience. Several months passed before he contacted me again, but I was very impressed by the emotion that leaked from his voice as he told and it didn't take long to convince me. Thus was born 'The Night of Concord' ".
What emotions did you hear the story from the voice of a witness?
“When Mario first told me about that night, his eyes were shining and his voice was broken. And this after eight years from the incident. When I interviewed other people in the course of writing, I saw the same emotion in many eyes and this moved me. And he convinced me to write their story. Their tales were so intense and vivid that they managed to take me to that ship that night, and to the island in the following moments. "
Did Pellegrini's story offer you any surprises?
“It would be easier to say what didn't surprise me. Mario got on board before the ship capsized. He lived through the tragic moments in which many lost their lives, risking their own. And he went down last, followed only by the second officer Canessa. Often, during the story, I had the feeling of watching an American action movie, so much the events seemed incredible to me. And his absence of fear, his almost unnatural clarity: that really surprised me ”.
Why is it so important not to forget what happened ten years ago?
"It is important not to forget why history teaches. Or at least it should teach. This shipwreck, unique in the world - a ship of that size had never been wrecked and a removal operation of that magnitude had never been carried out before - should remind us that arrogance and superficiality can create immense damage. But also that the human being is able to act with great humanity and altruism. The timely intervention of the Gigliesi and their welcome were a fundamental aid to the rescue of the castaways. the bonds that have been established between shipwrecked people and the people of Giglio still resist. It is on this aspect that we wanted to focus our attention in the book: the heroism of ordinary men who did not want the spotlight because, like many of them affirmed: 'if someone needs help what do you do, don't you give it to them?' ".