We're heading to Italy and we're renting a camper there.
But we're not really sure what we're getting, or if it's legit.
So here's the deal.
Kait and I are heading to Europe.
Rather than flying, we've decided to take a Transatlantic cruise over to the UK.
And from the UK, we're gonna travel down to Italy where we're picking up our camper van.
Hopefully...
As we're going across the Atlantic, we're gonna make some videos about the cruise over,
and then once we get to Italy, we're gonna make some videos
about what it's like to camper van in Italy.
But here's the thing. This isn't the first time we've rented a camper "overseas".
We actually flew to Maui once, rented a camper there,
and spent about 10 days on the island, going around and seeing everything.
And it was absolutely fantastic, and the whole process of renting was seamless.
This time, not so much.
Now, if you want to check out our Maui videos,
I will link to them in the video above or in the description below.
Now, to get to our camper rental in Italy,
Kait made the reservation with company A.
Uh, and then about a week ago, we heard from company B, confirming our reservation.
Two completely different companies.
Along with two completely different confirmation numbers,
and then a third confirmation number in the contract that they sent along.
The amount for the camper has changed a number of times as well as the deposit,
but that's not the only thing that's changed.
The actual camper we're renting is not the same as what we originally rented.
Originally, we had rented a small, kind of like the ProMasters
that you would find in the US only. This one was manual, it had a bed, a bathroom,
and all those amenities.
Well, we're not sure what we're gonna find when we show up in Italy.
Hopefully, there will be a van waiting for us.
Now, we have contacted both companies.
The company we originally rented from, we haven't heard back from.
The company who wrote to confirm the reservation
wrote back to us once because I contacted them, saying, "Hey, we never rented a camper from you."
And they said, "Oh, it's okay. We work with the other company."
Uh, but the biggest problem is the language barrier.
So the contract we got from company B is all in Italian.
Um, the emails and all the communication have all been in Italian,
and some of that stuff you can use Google Translate and it works fine.
Others, it just makes no sense.
So we're just gonna kind of go with it, you know,
see what happens when we get to Italy. If there's a camper there, fantastic.
If not, we'll figure something else out to do.
Despite the camper van unknowns in Italy,
we are very excited to tour the country in a camper van.
Joe and I have always talked about possibly shipping our camper over to Europe
and exploring in our own van.
We figured what better way to kind of "get our feet wet"
than to rent a camper in Italy and tour around, see what it's like.
From all of our research and things that we've read,
Italy is a very camper van-friendly country,
and I found that to be true as I'm doing research on campgrounds, bookings,
uh, looking to see if there are Harvest Hosts-type organizations over in Europe.
And since we are going to be in a camper
that doesn't have a huge battery system like our camper in the States,
Joe and I have to plan to be at a campground every night
so that we can plug in and run everything in the camper.
And finding campgrounds has been very simple.
There are some automated campgrounds that I found where you get a QR code,
you scan in, and then you just pay on your way out.
I kind of wish we had more systems like that in the States,
so very excited to experience that when we're in Italy.
Italy has been on our bucket list for quite a while,
so we're really looking forward to this trip, especially the food.
If you've seen our other international travel videos or just any travel videos,
food is a big part of how we explore and experience the culture.
So we're going to the Bologna region,
and we're gonna start off at the Ducati Museum and taking a factory tour.
So that has been booked.
Then, we're hoping to hit up some parmesan cheese factories, go on some salami tours.
I even found a salami place that has motorhome hook-ups.
So you can pay five to ten Euro and spend the night.
And a while back, we posted in our community tab, asking you all
to share your favorite things to do and see in Italy.
Thank you so much for all of your feedback. We've been making notes.
Unfortunately, we won't get to experience all the things that you all have suggested,
but we'll hold onto those for a future trip.
Another thing is, if any of y'all have actually rented a camper van overseas, especially in Italy,
uh, leave some comments down below as to some tips and tricks you found
while traveling around Europe in a camper van.
If you have any other suggestions about being in the Bologna region, leave comments as well.
And if you happen to live or you're going to be in that region while we're there,
leave a comment and let us know and maybe we can meet up for an espresso or something.
Look forward to some cruising videos followed up by our camper van videos in Italy.
Well, hopefully, camper van. We'll see what happens,
but if nothing else, it'll be a fantastic trip.
Typically, I try to respond to most, if not all of your comments.
However, I'll probably be pretty slow because by the time you see this video,
we will be in the Mid-Atlantic, making our way over to the UK,
so we probably won't have Wi-Fi. If we do, it's gonna be very slow,
so don't expect a response from me, but
be sure that once we get to land, I will be checking all of your comments.
But that is it for this video. Thank y'all so much.
Bye.