8. The Tuscan Islands and some of their stories.

 8. The Tuscan Islands and some of their stories.

Of the Tuscan Islands in the Archipelago there are 3 with famous stories.

The First is Elba with the history of Napoleon as I have already mentioned. 

The Second is Isola di Monte Cristo which Alexander Dumas made famous with his novel "The Count of Monte Cristo" and which has been made into 2 films. It is a deserted Island and a Nature Reserve and prohibited to land.  It is allegedly full of adders. The story possibly to scare people from visiting. It would be difficult to land as it is sheer cliffs most of the way around and very deep waters in shore.

In the last century an eccentric and possibly a little unbalanced English man lived on the Island and called himself the Count of Monte Cristo. It is a desolate looking place which embodies mystery and this is possibly the reason why Alexander Dumas chose the island for his novel. 

The Third Island is Isola di Giglio where we were recently on anchor. It can be considered famous (or infamous) due to the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia in 2012 when 36 people drowned due to the Captain steering the ship close to shore to salute a retired Captain and of course to impress his girlfriend by his side. 

It took the ship 2 years to be refloated and shipped in a special cradle to Genoa where she was dismantled for scrap. The total cost of the work was 1.3 billion Euros.