Men and women of the coast guard, fire brigade, mountain rescue, police and civil protection are all on hand on the picturesque island of Giglio, off the Tuscan coast. But there is little for them to do, other than promenade along the waterfront and drink coffee in the cafes.
The emergency services workers are here to help search for those still missing aboard the Costa Concordia, but all work was called off early Friday, when the wreck began once more to shift, making the rescue effort too dangerous. "Always waiting," Andrea Costantini tells dpa, shaking his head. "And this has been going on for almost a week now. We really wanted to help."
Costantini is a diver, one of the best and most experienced members of a special unit attached to the Italian alpine rescue corps. He was last aboard the stricken cruise ship on Thursday, along with a 20-member team of divers. Now, just 24 hours later, he is no longer wearing his neoprene diver's gear. "It's too dangerous. Our own safety comes first," he says.
Costantini is standing talking to journalists on the pier at Giglio, watching as a ferry arrives carrying yet more rescue workers and their equipment. He is unable to disguise how tense he feels, despite the large pair of dark glasses he is wearing. The 290-metre Costa Concordia is lying on its side in the background, apparently at rest on the sea floor just a stone's throw from the coast, but unreachable this morning.
"I have nothing new to tell you. We are still evaluating the data from the overnight readings," says Luca Cari, spokesman for the fire department, who acts as the main point of contact for media clustered around the port. There is a similar feeling of tension among the workers from the Dutch specialist company Smit Salvage, whose task it will be to pump all fuel and other oils out of the wreck before further action is taken.
"All that we can do is to be prepared," says one of the Smit employees, who will help to ensure that as little environmental damage as possible is done by the fuel that is still aboard leaking into the sea. The salvage team had planned to resume work on Friday as the rescue workers continued their search, and a huge floating heavy-lift crane was waiting at anchor in Porto Giglio.
"It's frustrating," says the employee, who declined to give his name and to provide any further information on the mood among the salvage workers. But frustration is evident in the way he shakes his head as he looks once again at the still gleaming Costa Concordia under a serene blue sky.