Manrico Giampedroni leaves the Grosseto hospital in Italy
Photo: AP
Manrico Giampedroni described how he survived on soggy sandwiches and bottles of Coca-Cola that floated past him as he waited to be rescued in freezing cold water.
Manrico spent 36 hours partly submerged in the water with a broken leg after slipping and falling down a hatchway while trying to help passengers escape.
He said he began to suffer from hypothermia and alerted rescuers to his presence in the bowels of the ship by banging a saucepan against the wall.
Mr Giampedroni, 56, the ship’s purser, was the last person to be found alive on the giant liner, which smashed into rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio on the night of Jan 13.
He was located by Italian divers and winched aboard a helicopter, which flew him straight to hospital in Grosseto on the mainland.
Speaking after being released from hospital on Wednesday, he said he was helping dozens of passengers evacuate the listing ship when he slipped and fell about 20ft through a doorway, landing in a flooded restaurant area and breaking his left leg in two places.
He said he found himself trapped in a jumbled heap of tables and chairs.
He climbed onto a table, above the water line, and had to balance on his good leg “like a flamingo”.
“I managed to find a panino and a Coca-Cola that were floating in the water. I grabbed them, so I had something to eat at least. I also sipped from a bottle of Cognac, for the first time in my life.”
Through the windows of the ship he saw the sun come up on the morning of Sat 14 Jan, the day after the disaster, and then the sunset a few hours later.
“I used a saucepan to make a noise to attract rescuers. Through a window I could see all the emergency vessels around the ship and I tried to shout out. There were moments in which I felt desperate.”
“When I saw the first fireman, I hugged him, and I thanked God.”
The officer said his main wish was to make a full recovery and then return to work for Costa Cruises, the Genoa-based company that owns and operated the luxury liner.
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