One of the safest and most closely monitored asylums in Italy was the Voghera Asylum, also known as "Manicomio del Lombroso," a structure designed by the famous Cesare Lombroso himself. The psychiatric hospital was built in 1876 in the Neoclassical style on the site of a former Franciscan monastery. The structure was enormous and designed to house over a thousand patients. The institution officially opened its doors on December 1, 1876, when Benedetto Branzoni, a blacksmith by trade, became the first patient to pass through the Voghera gates. From that day on, the asylum's many patients were subjected to various therapies (tortures) designed to induce "tranquility."

Now that almost the entire complex has been emptied, little remains to remind us of the horrors that took place within its walls. Yet, the history of this asylum is not all doom and gloom. There's the story of the beloved patient Luigi Marini (nicknamed "Ringo"), also known as "the mad dancer," who managed to escape from the heavily guarded institution almost every night, hitchhiking into town to dance the night away, only to voluntarily return to the asylum he had escaped in the morning.

More recently, the asylum also connected the men's ward with the women's ward. Thanks to this decision, two patients (Luigina and Mario) fell in love and married. The two were discharged, but they enjoyed returning to the asylum to spend time in their own cell. It wasn't a painful place for them, but rather the place where they met and fell in love.