Local residents and survivors spoke of an eerie feeling as the ship rose, saying it reminded them of the way it looked on the night of the disaster.
“Seeing it re-emerge is emotional for me,” said Luciano Castro, a survivor who travelled to the picturesque Tuscan island to witness the salvage.
“I could not miss it. That ship could have been my end and instead I am here to tell the story,” he said.
‘A bit of a rollercoaster’
The salvage is the biggest ever undertaken for a passenger ship and the position of the hulk posed unique challenges for the 500 person international salvage team.
They also had to take special care since Giglio is in the heart of one of Europe’s biggest marine sanctuaries.
The ship was dragged up with 36 cables across the hull and tanks the size of 11 storey buildings welded on the side of the ship which were filled with water to act as ballast.
It is now sitting on a vast underwater steel platform and the next step will see tanks fitted to the side of the ship which was on the rocks.
Water will then be drained from the tanks on both sides in order to float the ship.
The project has so far cost 600 million euros ($800 million) and insurers estimate it could run to $1.1 billion once it is completed.
“I’m relieved. It was a bit of a rollercoaster,” Sloane said as he was mobbed by dozens of journalists and well-wishers in the port before a celebratory drink.
“The scale of it was something we’ve never seen before,” he said.
The Costa Concordia struck rocks just off Giglio after veering sharply towards the island in a bravado sail-by allegedly ordered by its captain, Francesco Schettino.
Dubbed “Captain Coward” and “Italy’s most hated man” in the tabloids for apparently abandoning ship while passengers were still on board, Schettino is currently on trial.
Four crew members and the head of ship owner Costa Crociere’s crisis unit have already been handed short prison sentences for their roles in the crash.
The ship had 4,229 people from 70 countries on board.
The order to abandon the vessel was delayed and problems with launching lifeboats saw some people forced to jump into the freezing water.
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