MANILA - Two days after his release from the Abu Sayyaf, Italian Red Cross worker Eugenio Vagni met with President Arroyo Tuesday morning in Malacañang where he recounted his ordeal.

Vagni was accompanied by military officials involved in his rescue, Italian Ambassador to Manila Rubens Fedele, Italian philantropist Andy de Rossi, and Philippine National Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon.

Vagni, who is scheduled to return to Italy on Wednesday, said he may return to the Philippines as a tourist.

He also thanked all those who prayed for his safe release.

"My feeling is that I start slowly, slowly to feel the freedom," Vagni said. “To all the Philippines people that have prayed for me, they are all in my heart."

Meantime, Vagni said he's now considering retiring so he can enjoy more time with his family.

Vagni was released by the Abu Sayyaf in Maimbung, Sulu last Sunday after nearly six months in captivity.
 
Vagni said the will to see his family helped him survive his ordeal.

"I feel like this is the happiest day of my life, this is my second life and I will devote it to my family,” he told ABS-CBN’s Ces Drilon in an exclusive interview. “My family, I always thought of them, it was the thought of them that gave me strength."
 
Vagni and fellow Red Cross workers Mary Jean Lacaba and Andreas Notter were seized last January while on a humanitarian mission in jolo.
 
Lacaba and Notter were freed in April. -- report from ABS-CBN News Channel