Looking To Buy A Haunted Island?

If you've got some money to burn, and a dark streak, here's a proposition for you — Poveglia, Italy's creepy, "haunted" island. That's what the Italian government would like you to consider, at the very least, as they've put Poveglia up for auction in an attempt to combat their national debt. There's a plan, as reported by The Telegraph, to turn the decaying property into a destination hotel, but that seems like a waste — isn't there something nice about feeling scared?

It's impossible to know how much it'll go for, even though it's prime real estate location-wise, sitting right in the Venetian lagoon. The drawback is the grisly history that's had Proveglia called "the most haunted place on Earth." First, it was a quarantine zone and functional mass grave for plague victims in the late-18th century, and later a mid-20th century mental asylum. It's claimed that the asylum played host to a sadistic doctor, who performed horrific experimental lobotomies on patients before flinging himself from the island's bell tower from fear of ghosts.

All in all, countless people have died and suffered on Poveglia, in various excruciating circumstances, and whether for reasons of superstition or basic safety, it's been basically deserted for fifty years, with the government maintaining tight control over who can and cannot visit the island.

The Italian government isn't actually offering to sell the island outright, though. They're offering a 99-year-lease, which should be more than enough time to dust the cobwebs off the walls. It's basically the most picturesque, sun-drenched ghost island you're ever going to find, and it could all be yours — for the right price.