As December 21, 2012 -- aka the End Of The World -- inches closer, one Italian contractor has turned his countrymen's Mayan apocalypse fears into a lucrative source of revenue.
According to Italian newspaper Corriere Del Veneto, an Italian lawyer had a bunker built under his villa in Padua, near Venice, to protect him from the consequences of an apocalypse.
Leonardo Remorini, the contractor who built the bunker, says he has recently constructed about ten others in northern Italy.
“The one we built in Padova is a 60 sq meters (645 sq feet), capable of resisting earthquakes and explosions. In one of the rooms there is an electric generator, that can also work with diesel oil and has solar panels,” Remorini told the newspaper, according to a HuffPost translation. “The bunker has been ready since May. The structure is buried 3 meters (10 feet) deep, and has bedrooms, bathrooms and a kitchen. Once they gather their food supplies, the couple and their child will be able to survive 6 months without going out,” he added.
The Italians are not the only ones preparing for the December 21 "doomsday" event.
In China, a man has reportedly spent his life savings on the construction of his very own "Noah's Ark" to save him from the Mayan disaster. According to China News Service, Lu Zhenghai has already spent about $1,000,000 Yuan on the boat, which measures about 65 feet in length and will, when completed, weigh about 80 tons, the report states.
These doomsday-believers fear an old Mayan prophecy predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012.
The prophesy they refer to is found in an ancient Mayan monument in Tortuguero, Mexico, and is believed to have been left by a Mayan ruler.
The Mayan leader, fresh from defeat on the battlefield, declared that the military setback was but one event in a larger cycle of time that would end in 2012.
Many scholars say the prophesy was misinterpreted, however, and was not meant to suggest the end of all time, but simply the end of the old Mayan calendar and the beginning of a new one.
The building contractor who transformed the Mayan prophecy in a lucrative business, says he doesn’t believe in the apocalyptic theories.
“In my opinion, December 22 will be exactly the same as the day before, But if a client asks me for a bunker, I can’t change his mind.”
According to fair finder Skyscanner, apocalypse-expecting travelers around the world who aren't sure there will be a December 22 are still preparing for this most recent end of time apocalypse event. Interest in one-way tickets to places considered safe havens for the apocalypse catastrophe have spiked. AFP reports doomsday believers have recently flooded the Turkish village of Sirince, believing that the small town's "positive energy" will save them from mayhem.
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