According to Italian newspaper La Stampa, for which Quirico was reporting from Syria, the journalist landed in Rome in pretty good health conditions.

　　"I feel like I have lived on Mars for five months. Only today I found out who the new president of my country is," he was quoted as saying by La Stampa.

　　In June Quirico phoned to his wife saying he had been put in confinement for nearly two months, after which the Italian foreign ministry confirmed that negotiations to bring him back home were in a "particularly delicate" phase.

　　Quirico, 62, an experienced war journalist, entered Syria on April 6 to report on the country's civil war, and had not been in contact with his family and colleagues since April 9.