Montecristo was made famous by the French novelist Alexandre Dumas in his classic The Count of Monte Cristo, a story of revenge, honour and buried treasure.
The island is uninhabited but 1,000 tourists are allowed to visit each year under a tightly-controlled permit system. In 2012, while the island of Giglio was dealing with the aftermath of the Costa Concordia disaster, its neighbor Montecristo was overrun by black rats.
Both islands are part of the Tuscan archipelago and part of Europe's largest marine reserve.
Authorities were planning to use aircraft to bombard the uninhabited nature reserve with around 26 tons of poison pellets in a bid to tackle the infestation.
And just when authorities thought they had found a solution to their vermin problem (a.k.a. using aircraft to bombard Montecristo with 26 tons of poisonous pellets), environmental groups have put a spanner in the works, The Telegraph reports.

Map of Montecristo | Map