In the  Dumase novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantes was Imprisoned on The French Isle of Chateau De If , But the Tuscan Island of Montecristo is where Dantes located the hidden buried Treasure as described on the map.
 
Italy is Promoting "Montecristo" this Natural Reserve, one of the last untouched wild beauty spots in the Mediterranean, but the island's real treasure is its wildlife: it is an important refuge for migrating birds and home to many rare plants and animals, 
 
 Edmond Dantes, was fraudulently convicted of treason and imprisoned for 14 years at the Chateau deIf, where, Edmond becomes friends with the Abbe Faria, a priest and fellow prisoner trying to tunnel his way to freedom. Faria had been imprisoned for proposing a United Italy. Faria provides Dantes with education in subjects including languages, history, economics, philosophy, mathematics, chemistry and the manners of political society. The priest, ill,and knowing that he will soon die, confides in Dantes the location of a treasure hoard on the Italian islet of Monte Cristo. After Faria's death in1829, Dantes stages an ingenious escape and makes his way to the hiding place of the treasure. Then.he returns to Marseilles, where he learns that his father has died in poverty from treachery.  With his new found wealth and education, Dantes buys the island of Monte Cristo and the title of Count from the Tuscan Government.
 
Returning to Marseille, Dantes puts his plans for revenge on hold while he first helps out several people who had been kind to him before his imprisonment. The story then moves forward nine years, making it now 1838. when Edmond (now in disguise as the Count Of Monte Cristo) is able to take his revenge on the three men responsible for his unjust imprisonment: Fernand Mandego, his former friend that betrayed him to marry Edmond's Fiancee,  Baron Danglars, now a wealthy banker; and Gerard de Villefort, a Prosecutor. 

Italian government hopes to raise ?1m a year by charging up to ?50 per person for visits to Mediterranean nature reserve

Visitors are to be charged up to ?50 a head to visit one of the last untouched spots in the Mediterranean - the island of Montecristo, whose wild beauty inspired Alexandre Dumas's novel of treasure and revenge.

The announcement represents a first step towards the commercialisation of a nature reserve that Silvio Berlusconi's environment minister has said could raise ?1m a year. In a television interview in June, Stefania Prestigiacomo said Montecristo "could be sold for tourism and inserted into an absolute elite circuit".

The island forms part of the Tuscan archipelago national park. Like Italy's other nature reserves, it is facing a 50% budget cut as part of a package of emergency measures approved by parliament last week, aimed at staving off a Greek-style financial crisis.

The minister's suggestion was vigorously opposed at the time by the park's director, Mario Tozzi. But in an apparent effort to meet the government halfway, he told a conference last week, organised by the environmental group Legambiente, that a ticket system would come into operation next year.

"If the cuts are confirmed, the Tuscan [natural] parks will lose more than ?3m. So we won't even be able to guarantee the employees their salaries," Tozzi told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Currently, Montecristo's only inhabitants are a lighthouse keeper, his family and a couple of forestry guards. After being made a nature reserve in 1971, the island became virtually impossible to visit.

Two years ago it was announced that up to 2,000 people a year would be allowed to visit its tiny natural history museum and that another 1,000 people would be admitted on guided tours. But the difficulty of obtaining permits has meant many fewer have actually seen the white beaches, turquoise coastal waters and pink-grey granite.

The latest announcement is bound to raise fears that, if access is limited only by the price of a ticket, numbers will soar. In view of the cuts, the park authorities may struggle to lay on sufficient guides.

The hero of Dumas's novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, found buried gold and jewels there. But the island's real treasure is its wildlife: it is an important refuge for migrating birds and home to many rare plants and animals, including a snake, the Montecristo viper, which is unique to the island.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/
aug/01/montecristo-island-italy-visitors
 

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