Ca’ Dario

Grand Canal palaces rank among the world’s most prime real estate, except for the perfectly gorgeous 1487 Ca’ Dario. Its striking multicoloured marble facade casts a mesmerising reflection in the Grand Canal, captured by no less than Claude Monet – but there’s a catch. Starting with the daughter of its original owner, Giovanni Dario, an unusual number of its owners have met mysterious or miserable ends, lost fortunes and/or become frightfully ill, which local gossips claim was enough to dissuade Woody Allen from buying the place in the 1990s. The former manager of The Who and then owner of the building committed suicide there, and one week after renting the place for a holiday in 2002, The Who’s bass player, John Entwhistle, died of a heart attack. Though Peggy Guggenheim shows are sometimes held on the premises, Ca’ Dario remains unsold; any takers?