I have to ask: what was the ship doing so near that particular shore?  But apparently it’s not an unusual thing.

Last August Sergio Ortelli wrote an email in which he thanked a friend and captain with the ocean carrier Costa for passing close by the island of Giglio. Ortelli, the mayor of the tiny Italian island, praised the captain for providing an “unequalled spectacle,” that had become an “indispensable tradition.”

Be sure you check out the map of the Captain’s maneuver that accompanies the Spiegel Online International article at the link.

The following imagery also is from Spiegel Online International, some from the above link, and some from here.