The ship hit a reef near the island of Giglio in January 2012 and capsized, with the loss of 32 lives.

Mr Schettino was taken to the wreck on board a small boat, two days after travelling back to Giglio.

He denies the charges of manslaughter and abandoning ship, which could see him jailed for up to 20 years.

He arrived on the island off the Tuscan coast on Tuesday and is said to have wept when he saw the wreck from a ferry taking him to Giglio.

He attended a health-and-safety briefing at a hotel on Thursday morning to prepare him for the short boat trip out to the wreck, on which he was accompanied by a group of court-appointed experts.

Mr Schettino was taken out to the wreck on a small boat and was then seen standing on the ship itself.

 

Francesco Schettino was surrounded by reporters as he arrived at the port in Giglio

He was being allowed on to the ship "as a defendant, not a consultant", said Judge Giovanni Puliatti.

The 290m-long vessel was righted in September 2013 in one of the largest, most complex salvage operations ever, but remains stranded.

The captain has been accused of leaving the luxury liner before the 4,229 people on board the ship were taken off the ship.

"They want to show that I am weak, just like two years ago. It's not true. I want to show I'm a gentleman, not a coward," Italian media quoted him as saying.

He has already accepted some degree of responsibility, asking for forgiveness in a television interview last year as he talked of those who died.

Mr Schettino returned to the ship on a small boat (foreground)

He was then seen (Centre without a helmet) in a blue sweater standing on the wreck of the ship

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?" one woman on the island told the AFP news agency. "We're tired of this story! We want him and the boat gone."

But Giuseppe Modesti, 67, 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 wreck sits in the harbour of Giglio

It is Mr Schettino's first visit back