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Giglio awaits the raising of the Costa Concordia

While the world’s eyes are trained on the operation out at sea it is easy to forget the impact of the Costa Concordia disaster on the little village of Giglio, within touching distance of the world’s most expensive wreck. The eyesore mars the coastline of the tiny Tuscan island, and everyone wants it gone. “Watching these people working you can see they know what they are doing. I hope nothing bad happens, but we will have to see,” said shop owner Pietro Pellegrini. The local saint’s day parade on Sunday was an occasion to offer prayers for a successful operation, and to remember the 32 people who died in the shipwreck. Many here saw the ship go down. Its raising will be a much happier moment. “Well I hope they’ll manage to re-float the ship and above all that they find those last two bodies, the two people that still haven’t been found,” said Seminarian Leonardo Oddi. The operation is expected to last around 10 hours.