Montecristo, the island that was made famous by the Alexandre Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo, is set to be opened up to tourists.

The fabled island, which lies in the Tyrrhenian Sea off Tuscany, Italy, will open up for the first time and welcome up to 1,000 visitors a year.

Until now only scientists and researchers have been allowed to visit the island, which is uninhabited and is home to a number of unique plant and animal species that have flourished in the absence of a human population.

Montecristo also boasts 650-metre-high mountains, an 18th century villa and the ruins of a 13th century monastery.

Visitors can apply to take a tour of the island online and will be given a course in environmental education to ensure they do not damage its ecosystem.

'Those who visit it must be educated enough to understand what treasures they are being allowed to see,' Mario Tozzi, head of the Tuscan Archipelago Parks Commission, told the Times.

In Dumas' novel of 1846, Montecristo is the hiding place of a treasure trove that is discovered by Edmond Dantes, who uses the riches to gain revenge on the man who had him wrongfully imprisoned.