Costa Concordia's Captain Schettino to revisit ship
Capt Francesco Schettino blamed his Indonesian helmsman for steering the ship onto rocks The captain of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, Francesco Schettino, is due to return to the wreck on Thursday.
It will be his first time back on the ship since it hit a reef near the island of Giglio in January 2012 and capsized, killing 32 people.
The visit is part of an investigation at Capt Schettino's trial, where he is accused of manslaughter and abandoning ship. He denies the charges.
If found guilty he could face up to 20 years in prison.
Capt Schettino arrived back on Giglio, off the Tuscany coast, on Tuesday, and was reported to have wept when he first saw the stranded ship.
The 290m-long vessel was righted in September 2013 in one of the largest, most complex salvage operations ever, but remains stranded.
Capt Schettino will board the ship along with inspectors on Thursday, but will not be allowed to interfere with their investigation.
He would be allowed onto the ship "as a defendant, not a consultant", said Judge Giovanni Puliatti.
Memories of tragedyThe captain has been accused of leaving the luxury liner before all 4,229 people on board had been evacuated.
He has already accepted some degree of responsibility, asking for forgiveness in a television interview last year as he talked of those who died.
But he denies abandoning the ship after it hit a reef near the island.
He maintains he managed to steer the stricken vessel closer to shore so it did not sink in deep water where hundreds might have drowned.
An Italian court convicted five others of manslaughter in July 2013.
They had all successfully entered plea bargains, whereas Mr Schettino's request for a plea bargain was denied by the prosecution.
His return to the island will undoubtedly stir memories of the tragedy among locals, says the BBC's Alan Johnston.
"Schettino's here, he cried, so what? We're tired of this story! We want him and the boat gone," one woman on the island told the AFP news agency.
But 67-year-old Giuseppe Modesti told AFP: "There's no real anger here any more. Two years have passed and it's time to make peace with what happened."
The complex operation to salvage the Costa Concordia took 18 hours and followed months of stabilisation and preparation work by a team of 500 engineers and divers.
Ports in Italy, Britain, France, Turkey and China are now bidding for the lucrative contract to dismantle it.
The Costa Concordia was righted last September in a complex operation that took 18 hours 
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