Italy's government put up Venetian island Poveglia, better known as "the island of the dead" or "plague island" for online auction, – reports ee24.com citing La Nuova Venezia and The Daily Mail. Applications are accepted until May 6, 2014: it is necessary to pay a €20,000 deposit and specify the amount that the investor is willing to pay for the island. Local patriots opened a group on Facebook and intend to chip in "all Public" for €99 each and save the island from foreign investors.
The Italian government is intending to lease the Poveglia Island for 99 years and pass earnings to reduce the country’s public debt that is a common practice in Italy in recent years. It is supposed to open a hotel and recreational area here.
Poveglia is an island in the Venetian lagoon known for its horror stories. From the late 18th century here stayed ships with crews, having a plague disease. Island acted as a quarantine station and cemetery at once. After the First World War, there was a mental hospital and geriatric center, closed in the late 1960s. After that the island remained closed to visitors and fell into disuse. There is a popular phrase in Venice, that "when a bad man dies – he wakes up at Poveglia".