The letter is in stark contrast to recent social media reaction to militants' threats. Earlier this month, IS-affiliated Twitter accounts warned that the group had its sights on Rome, using the hashtag #We_Are_Coming_O_Rome. But Italians responded with irony , tweeting suggestions on where to eat and how to avoid the city's traffic jams. "#We_Are_Coming_O_Rome hey just a tip: don't come in train, it's every time late!" tweeted one user . The jokes were perhaps lost on those working in the seas off Lampedusa. "We need to be protected and defended," Mr Martello says. "But to work we also need to be calm in a Mediterranean that is increasingly becoming the world's powder keg."