one report

I read one report that the captain sailed close as a favor to the 'chief waiter' (as had been done before)... and the last line of the above link says:

"Half an hour before disaster struck, the waiter's sister posted an entry on her Facebook page saying she had been told the ship was "going to pass really close", and sending "a big hello to my brother".

One more report including this:"The father of the ship's head waiter told Reuters that his son had telephoned him before the accident to say the crew would salute him by blowing the ship's whistle as they passed by the island of Giglio, where both the waiter, Antonello Tievoli, and his 82-year-old father Giuseppe live.

"The ship obviously came too close," the elder Tievoli said, according to Reuters.

I don't know if Antonello asked the captain to come near, but the responsibility is always the captain's."

Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted witnesses as saying that shortly before the accident, the captain called the head waiter to the bridge saying, "Antonello, come see, we are very close to your Giglio."

Yes...those are technically 'hearsay', but there does seems to be a pattern emerging.