Napoleon's villas on Elba - credited with boosting the tourist trade on the island off Tuscany - are set to be restored to draw even more people to the place where the fallen French emperor spent his first exile.
The two buildings where the legendary French leader lived for 300 days in 1814-1815 are to be spruced up with money from Italy's Lotto funds in time for the 200th anniversary of his arrival on the picturesque island.
"Thanks to these new resources," said Tuscany's cultural heritage chief, Mario Lolli Ghetti, "we'll be able to start getting the buildings in shape in time for 2014".
He said the buildings - Villa dei Mulini and Villa San Martino - would be renamed "the imperial residence of Napoleon Bonaparte".
Italy's cultural heritage undersecretary, Andrea Marcucci, said the project "confirms the rising interest in Napoleon's stay on the island".
The deposed emperor's brief sojourn on the island has inspired books and films.
After a series of military defeats and his abdication at Fontainebleau, Napoleon was exiled to Elba by the Allied governments of Britain, Austria and Russia.
He landed on the island on 4 May 1814.
He was allowed a personal escort of some 1,000 men and a household staff and was even given the title Emperor of Elba to rule over its 110,000 people.
Bonaparte began his exile with a reform of the governmental system on the island, which is Italy's third biggest and lies just off the coast of Tuscany.
Soon, however, the former French emperor's thoughts turned towards Paris - now under the restored rule of the Bourbons - and he began to plan his return.
The time came faster than he imagined and only nine months later, on 26 February 1815, he escaped with his miniature army and landed in France.
The famous 100 Days Campaign, leading up to his final defeat at Waterloo, had begun.
The Allies decided to stymie any possibility of a replay by putting him on the remote Atlantic island of St.Helena, where he lived till his death.
