ROME (AFP) - For some people, going to prison can feel like escaping to freedom.

A man under house arrest in Italy showed up at a police barracks asking to be put behind bars because life with his wife at home was unbearable, the police said on Sunday (Oct 24).

The 30-year-old Albanian citizen living in Guidonia Montecelio, outside Rome, "was no longer able to cope with the forced cohabitation with his wife", Carabinieri police from nearby Tivoli said in a statement.

"Exasperated by the situation, he preferred to escape, spontaneously presenting himself to the Carabinieri to ask to serve his sentence behind bars," they wrote.

The man had been under house arrest for drug crimes for several months and had a few years left to serve, Captain Francesco Giacomo Ferrante of the Tivoli Carabinieri told AFP.

"He lived at home with his wife and family. It wasn't going well anymore," Captain Ferrante said.

"He said, 'Listen, my domestic life has become hell, I can't do it anymore, I want to go to jail'."

The man was promptly arrested for violating his house arrest and judicial authorities ordered his transfer to prison.