Spooky Italian island up for sale!

Poveglia, an uninhabited 17-acre island situated between Venice and Lido in northern Italy's Venetian Lagoon, is up for sale in a bid to reduce the country's public debt, but it seems the buyer will have to have a large heart as it may not be so easy ignore the island's spooky history, a media report said Wednesday.

The island, once a dumping ground for dying plague victims, is said to be haunted by tens of thousands of tortured spirits, the Independent reported.

More recently the island was home to a mental hospital said to be run by a cruel doctor.

The island has remained closed to visitors in recent years with access strictly restricted by the Italian government.

It has turned a draw for supernatural investigators searching for signs of the rumoured spirits, the most famous of which is a plague victim called Little Maria, who it is claimed stands crying looking out across the lagoon towards her home.