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Last Updated: Mon., Oct. 10, 2011, 08:16pm
Posted: 3:24 PM, October 4, 2011

Just hours after Amanda Knox was acquitted of murdering her British roommate, her fellow inmates reportedly gave her a loud hero's welcome upon returning to the prison where she'd spent the last four years of her life.

Corrado Maria Daclon, who works as the secretary general of the USA Italy Foundation, which helped Knox during the appeals process, said the former exchange student was greeted by loud cheering.

"All the prisoners, 500 or 600 of them, started to greet Amanda from the windows, like soccer stardom," Daclon told ABC News. "It's difficult to describe the happiness of them seeing Amanda and greeting her and seeing her free now -- yelling, 'Oh, wow, ciao Amanda!' It was really, really incredible emotion."

Daclon said Knox walked back into the prison, where inmates crammed into each small window, cheering and waving clothing in the air like flags.

"All the prison was greeting her like a champion," he said.

An elated Knox returned the greeting.

"She was moved and jumped two times to greet them. She was so touched, you can't imagine," Daclon said.

He added Knox was a "model prisoner."

"They always said that Amanda is a model prisoner, perfect," he said. "Never one argument in four years, never one problem with guards or other prisoners. The perfect behavior ... but I didn't expect a reaction like this.

"Imagine, to see so many people, like a Hollywood movie, looking out of the windows, greeting Amanda and waving clothes. She was moved, like us, to see a show like this."

Once at the airport in Rome following a car ride, Knox gave Daclon a hug.

"She is very tired ... it's a mix of emotions," said Daclon. "Tired by this long limbo of a year's appeal trial. ... The uncertainty of the result made her more tense and she was very worried."

He said Knox said nothing before she boarded her plane.

"We just hugged and looked at each other," he said.

Knox is expected to arrive in Seattle tonight.

Hours after she was released, Knox thanked those Italians who supported her.

Knox thanked those 'who shared my suffering and helped me survive with hope,' in a letter to the USA Italy Foundation, which seeks to promote ties between Italy and the United States.

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