The tiny Tuscan island of Moritecristo, whose mysterious history is 32________with saints, monks and pirates, is to be opened up to the public for the first time. The diamond-shaped island, which is 33 _____ four square miles in size, was immortalised by Alexandre Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo as the 34________________of an enormous hidden treasure.

For almost 40 years, since it became a nature reserve, only scientists and researchers have been allowed within three miles of the island’s granite cliffs. The waters were regularly patrolled to make sure the island’s population of monk seals, dolphins, tuna and rare birds was not disturbed. Anyone 35___________the waters illegally was liable to an instant 150 pounds fine.

However, the Park Authority for the Tuscan Archipelago has now decided to 36___________up to 1,000 tourists a year to visit Montecristo, which lies 22 miles south of Elba and 40 miles from the coast of Italy.

Visitors will be allowed from April 1 to July 15 and then from August 31 to the end of October each year. Trips for 2009 have to be 37 ___________with the authority by the end of January next year. Dumas 38 ____ on the island in 1842, in the company of Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew. “It is fantastic and lonely, smelling of thyme and broom,” he wrote in a letter.