Refused Entry In Italy! Real Van Life!

We're having an absolute nightmare here. We were meant to be parking over there in the nice safe car park. We've just got there and there's a guy stood there flagging people saying you can't go in. We don't particularly want to be street parked, being told it's not the safest to leave campers on the side of the street. Good morning, guys. Welcome back. This week, we are currently on our travels. Switzerland. We're still in Switzerland, guys. If you've seen the last video, we're still here. We are crossing the Italian border today and we are heading to Milan. Now, Milan was never in the plan. After Switzerland, we were going to the Dolomites and then we were going to Venice. It's going to start snowing in Switzerland and our van isn't geared up at all for snow yet. The Dolomites is freezing cold. We don't have a diesel heater. Freeze warning. Freeze warning in the Dolomites. We are heading to Milan where it's nice and sunny. We've never even wanted to go to Milan. Our son suggested it actually because he's a big football fan. So, Milan is where we're going today and I thought we would bring you along to see what van life is like in Milan. Milano. So, this is where we've parked for the night right next to this beautiful river that's coming down from the mountains. I can't believe that this is a free park. But once again, Park4Night has done us so well. That is where our van is parked. We've parked there last night. It's just a stopover. We're still in Switzerland en route to Milan. So, we're going to cross the border today. But what an absolute amazing park to wake up to the water just cascading. You could hear it through the night. This is basically on Park4Night. You just go on the app and wherever we are, we usually just say, well, if it's a four and a half hour drive, we want to stop two hours in. What Kim does is then, as we're two hours in, she just goes on the next town on the map and sees whether there's any Park4Night stops there. It's really just gung-hoing it really. Obviously, we do have plans and stuff like that. But if you keep them loosely, you end up with these spots where you'd never know it was here. This is basically off the motorway. So, the motorway is just over there. But you would never know that a park up was even here. But if you look at it, we're in a small town. It's literally a little town in between two mountains. Kim's obviously doing all the dirty work while I'm filming. She's cleaning up. She's doing her hair now. She's in the salon. This is the van mirror for the salon. This is the A.K.A. the window outside. So, you can do your hair, your makeup. You can do anything you want in this mirror. It's absolutely fantastic. This is the mod cons of these van builds. I actually meant for it to be a van mirror for all the people. Because we're having four girls. There's a lot of hair to be done in the morning. It is a bit chaotic. But yeah, so absolutely amazing park up. So, thank you very much Park4Night. You've been an absolute trooper this year. So, yeah, we are a little bit gutted to be leaving Switzerland a bit early to be fair. Because we're on Thursday today. We were meant to be staying till the weekend. But the problem is they're having an early snow downfall, which is forecast for tomorrow. And we are not set up. We don't have snow tires. And also, you know, it was cold not last night and the night before. So, we're not geared up for snow driving. We obviously, well, before we traveled out of the UK, we checked the forecast. It was meant to be glorious everywhere, even in Switzerland. We've got there. We were there for five or six days. It rained every single day we were in Switzerland. We had one afternoon of a little bit of sunshine where the kids went on the paddle boards. But we had to endure on in the absolute lashing down rain. So, we've had to change our plans a little bit. So, where we parked this Park4Night, unbelievable. Like I said, once again, Kim is on the app. She's a machine on the Park4Night app. She finds this beautiful spot just on the road. Park4Night code. We'll pop it in the comments. When we go to Milan today, I have been on Park4Night. And it does state that in the Milan center, there's robberies everywhere for camper vans. So, today, I think we're going to pay €20. And that will give us a camper van parking spot overnight with security. Because we are leaving the van today while we head into Milan. And obviously, it's got all our valuables in. And we just don't want our van to break into. Was it Barcelona? Where did we do it last time? Was it in Barcelona? We went underground. We did Barcelona. We did Seville. Yep. So, every time you go to one of these big cities when you've got a camper with all your valuables in, you don't particularly want to be leaving it all, you know, unsecure, just in the middle of the road. So, always, sort of, Kim searches for these car parks because then you can have a little wander around. So, like here today, we're in the middle of nowhere in a lovely small town. Which is filled with snow in the winter. I googled it last night and it looks absolutely beautiful in the winter. And this was completely free. Then, obviously, tonight we'll pay €20. And it's that yin and yang, isn't it? Getting free park ups. We pay for a few if we don't feel safe enough. But, yeah, that's the beauty of van life, isn't it? Let's hit the road, guys. Let's go. We are going to head back. On our way back, we're going to check the weather because on our way back through, if Switzerland is dry or not snowy, there's a few things we want to tick off our list there. So, we're going to head back. We need to get the pot noodles out. Because we're going to be multitasking on the road. And pot noodles are very important. So, yeah, we're heading, obviously, into Milan. Kim had a bright spark idea that before we get there, all the pot noodles out, let's get the pot noodles ready so that we can have a quick lunch when we get there. And then, obviously, Kim makes a nice big pasta tea with all the vegetables. But when you're on the road and you're doing a quick lunch when you're getting into a city centre, it saves a fortune. So, yeah, I've got to get the pot noodles out. So, when we're on the long journey, while John is driving to Milan, we are getting some schoolwork in, aren't we, Penelope? Yeah. What are you doing? Hopefully, I'm nearly near the border now. If you've ever been to Switzerland, it is like when you're driving. Well, it's very windy today as well. I've got to keep my hand on the road. The amount of tunnels we've been through. We must have been through 20 tunnels on our trip down to the border of Italy. It's like now. Obviously, it's so windy around here. They've got these wind barriers up as we're on. This is a massive lake here. You can't see it now. But we're going into another tunnel. Now, yesterday, we went into a tunnel. And it was about, oh, it was miles long. We must have been in it for about 15 minutes. And the temperature in the tunnel got up to 36 degrees. Let's have a look at this view here now. So, look at this view. Look at that for a view as you're going into the tunnel. So, yeah, it got to 36 degrees. This is your tunnel now. So, hopefully, this tunnel isn't going to be as long as the other one. Because there's so many of them. But the tunnels are just magnificent. They just go through the mountains. And just keep going. And you come through one. And you come out. And you come through another one. And it's just fantastic how the structure they've built through all the mountains. We must have been, I don't know, through 15 or 20 tunnels now. We've lost count. But it's magnificent to see how the structure of the roads and everything. It's incredible, really. The kids are in awe of how many there are. And we're coming out now. So, we've come through another mountain. So, it's like, you look here now. We've come through here. And there'll be another. We'll end up going through a tunnel through that one. So, absolutely incredible. But we'll take you through. We'll let you know when we're past the border. We should be there soon. So, we went through the border. No one asked for nada. We didn't get asked for any passports. Any dogs. Animal health certificate. Nothing. No one questioned. The security guards were basically having a fag. Chilling. Having a chat. So, yeah. Obviously, it's another border. The Swiss border. We didn't show anything. We didn't show anything when we were doing to Portugal for the Spanish border. Or the Portuguese border. So, yeah. It's another border. So, it works well. I know, obviously, that the Europeans have that agreement where it's free to roam through Europe. But I would have presumed there would have been something. But, no. Didn't have to show a thing. So, now we've got 37 minutes to Milan. Not a big drive today. But, yeah. And another. Another tunnel. So, yeah. I presumed you would be able to show something. And when we got to that border, it was quite a big border. There was a lot of security there. But no one seemed at all bothered about anything. So, off to Milan we go! So, we're having an absolute nightmare here. We were meant to be parking over there. In the nice, sort of, safe car park. To pay 15, 20 euros for the day. We've just got there and there's a guy stood there flagging people saying you can't go in. So, obviously, we don't particularly want to be street parking. Because we've been told it's not the safest to leave campers on the side of the street. So, Kim's in the back now trying to find somewhere else. Bit of a pain in the arse, really. Well, pardon my friends. But it's only 20 to 1. So, we've not come too late. But we're just going to have to back to the drawing board and see where we can park to get into Milan. We are here. Everyone's eating. Everyone's had their noodles. But, yeah, these are the little hiccups that come up sometimes when you've got a 6.5 litre van. And I'm now locked out of it. So, after that faff, we drove 15 minutes to the other side of the centre of Milan. We found a park up that is, well, we hope it's a safe one. Basically, it's like a bus parking. So, there's plenty of people around. Obviously, we don't like leaving the van. We're not keen on leaving the van. I think everyone's gone the wrong way. The kids have gone that way. So, yeah. So, we are going to walk into Milan now. We are currently on a bike path about to get run over by scooters. So, we're going to get out of the way. But, yeah. So, we've parked here. Fingers crossed. We're not keen. Usually, when we come to cities, we park in either an indoor car or a secure car park. But, like I said today, we got there and it was full. So, it's a bit of a bummer. But we're not turning back out of Milan. So, basically, we've took all our valuables in this rucksack. So, yeah. Anyone that knows where we are, if you want to rob us, it's all in the bag. But, yeah. We've got our little doggy. And we're going to go and have a look around Milan now and see what it has to offer. Still on the bike path. And there is a bike coming now, guys. I can see the light. So, yeah. So, Milan. Bit of a funny one, really. Reminded me a bit like Paris to drive into. Wasn't as bad as Paris. Paris is a bit of a nut show if you ever drove around Paris. But, yeah. It was okay. And then, as we got into Milan, it just felt a bit crazy. The roads weren't too good either. So, yeah. We've got, obviously, we're parked up now. And we'll see what it has to offer. How far are we away from the centre, Kimmy? 20 minute walk away. And we'll see what's around. So, first impressions walking through Milan. Architecture, unbelievable. Everyone is taken back by how beautiful all the buildings are. It's quite, to be fair, we've been to lots of the major cities. We've been to Barca, Seville, Lisbon, Paris. Obviously, we've been to all the major cities. London, we've been to Edinburgh. Very easy to navigate when you've got five kids, this one. Some of them are a bit of a nightmare. But we found this one really easy to navigate. Not a problem at all. Plenty of paths to walk. This is a lovely little shopping area here. And the kids have spotted a Lego shop. They knew it was going to be here. So, first stop when you get in to... Where are we again? I keep forgetting. Milan, there we go. When you get into Milan, first stop is Lego shop when you've got five kids. Yeah, so, like Kimmy said, I'll explain to you guys. I am dyslexic. And my retention of remembering things is a nightmare. So, things that I get mixed up so much is Lisbon, Seville and Barcelona. Barcelona, I know, but I always get mixed up with where we've gone. Because we've been to so many different places now. I get muddled up. So, if I get anything wrong, or if I take a different name of something, put it in the comments. We're going to ask if a dog can come in. Let's see if it's dog friendly. We'll see. We'll go in and see if we get kicked out. Perfect. So, that's fantastic. So, little Luna can come shopping with us. Because in the UK, Luna is not allowed in unless she is classed as a support dog. So, we've headed out of the Lego store now. We're going into this little shopping complex. The absolute amazing... I'll take you down round here. If you can see down there, there's another cathedral. We're going to go and head down to that cathedral. The last cathedral we were at was the Las Familias. If I'm wrong, let me know in the comments. In Barcelona, kids absolutely love that cathedral. So, we're going to go and have a look at that one. We've just seen it in the Lego store. The huge structure of it made in there. So, we're going to see it in real life. And then tonight, I think we're going to have tea and five, guys. Because we can't... On travel days, we'd never be bothered cooking. That's why we had the... So, when she says pot noodles, it's these sober noodles that everyone seems to like. So, we have them and they're much easier. The shopping centres in here are much more different than the UK ones. A lot of the UK shops are in here. So, the kids are all going mad. I've actually lost them. Oh, no. So, they're going into Interstore, which is the Inter-Miami football store. So, our sons obviously found that on the maps. And said that we have to go and have a look. Because he's football crazy. So, yeah. We'll head into the Interstore. And obviously, like I said before. The dog can go in any shops here. They are really nice. But this is a decent shop to go in. So, the cathedral is absolutely amazing. To be fair. You're obviously not being here. You cannot even... sort of... depict of how big this thing is. It is absolutely amazing. We've decided to give it a miss going in. Because there's massive queues. And no one wants to queue. Everyone's shouting about Starbucks now. So, we are heading down there. But we've just been in the dreaded Sephora. Dread that shop. Everywhere. All over. If you've watched the channel before. I detest Sephora. They told you there should be a selection for men. I'm just sitting in the corner. A few board games. A few little magazines. A little coffee. How are you mate? How's your day? You've been dragged around the shops as well. I'll even speak in Italian. I'm not bothered mate. Shopping done. Keegan spent some of his wages. He's a real tight one. When it's our money. When he's younger. He'll spend like there's no tomorrow. But when it's his money. He is as tight as a you know what. So we're going to head to Starbucks now. I can hear something coming through. I think it's a police car back there. A bit busier now in this part. It's a big square here we're going into. And we are going to check the... Is it a Starbucks roastery? We've never been to one of these before. So hopefully we'll see how they make the coffee. And then, because I'm a cheap flint. We've got Nespresso. Because we need to get some Nespresso pods for our Nespresso machine in the van. And in Nespresso. If you ask them nicely. They'll make you a coffee while you're buying your coffee. So I'm getting a coffee in Nespresso. Because that saves on the budget. Some people call it a tightwad. We all go and buy pods anyway. Yeah. But I like to say. Could I try that flavour? And they bring you a cup of coffee out. So we've got the police coming through. What do they call the ridder? The police. We've just seen the army. We've seen the police. We've seen everything. They're everywhere. When you come to this square. There's a little bit of Heineken on the side. There we go. A lot of security presence here. This is obviously a real busy area. But the grandeur of the buildings here. And the square that's here. There you go. Kimmy can buy me some form of jewellery from Tiffany. You've not bought me any jewellery on wedding day. Oh yeah. How long ago was that? 11 or 12 years ago. Don't ask me questions I don't know the answer to. I get told off. So yeah. It's gone into the busy parts of Milan now. This is the busy square. We've got FAO Swartz here. This is the Starbucks here Kimmy. Left. Right here. Found it. Starbucks Reserve Roastery. So as Kim is a coffee fanatic. As you may know on this channel. But this one is not your normal Starbucks. So yeah. We're going to see where it is. I think there's a queue to get in. Always love to queue for a Starbucks. Historic buildings. The work of Italian artists. The journey of coffee beans. Brewing methods. There you go. I don't know. But we'll let you know if dogs are allowed. Because there's a guy on the door. Who looks like security. So we'll just see. Hopefully we can go in. Oh the doggie doggie doggie. I'll wait for the doggie. So. Wait a minute. So the dogs have to stay out here with Kim. And I'll come in. So this is the roastery. Now look at this. Unbelievable. This is not your average Starbucks guys. Come in here guys. So Kim is straight. She can smell a coffee from a hundred miles. Thank you so much. Wow. Look at this place. This is not your normal coffee. Pizza in Starbucks. Grab a bit of that. So this is the place to be. If you want a Starbucks and some food. So we've been Nespresso. So we have our Nespresso and my coffee. Saves on a Starbucks. So Kim's outside now with the kids. This is here where we buy our pods for the machine in the van. So now we've got that all sorted. We're going to head. I think now. We've all shopped out. We've been everywhere. The kids have took us around every shop known to man. I've never known kids that would like to shop as much as them. So we're all shopped out. Thank you so much guys. So we are. I was hoping this was a push. So the kids are outside now. I've got my Nespresso coffee. There they are. You always get treated like a celebrity when you come back to these. We're going to get some food now. Look at where these guys have been chilling out. Can I give you a coffee? It is burning my fingers. Do you want me to hold it? Yes please. So we're off to Five Guys to get some grub. Everyone's a bit tired now. Our little feet are weary. So we've all just absolutely demolished a Five Guys. It's now tea time around there. We spent quite a bit of time in there. Got plenty of drinks. Cost us the best part of €100. Now we had a Five Guys in Disneyland Paris. In their boardwalk. And it cost us I think €65 or €70. So that was €30 extra. It was a lot more expensive here. The meals were much pricier. If I knew they were that price we wouldn't have eaten in there. Everything was about €4 or €5 extra. A little bacon cheeseburger for the kids. Because we don't do kids meals. Was €13. That was with no chips and no drink. We won't be coming to this one again. It was expensive at this one. But we all ate because it was a necessity. Everyone's now refilled their drinks. And we are going to be heading back to the van. Because now it's getting late. And we've got to find a park up. We've got a bit of an issue now. I've got two phones. A work phone and a normal phone. The normal phone that has the park for night app on. It's run out of internet. So I'm trying to use my work phone. To give me a hotspot. And that's not working. So we have no clue where the van is. We forgot where the van is as well. Because it was on park for night. That's what I'm trying to do. I don't know where the van is. I'm like a homing pigeon. I am going back to that van. Follow me. I'm going the wrong way. We went past a Lego shop. I'm like a homing pigeon. We know where we're going. So we've made the right turns on the way home. We're nearly there. We still can't get the phone working. But we've walked past these before. And these cars are so cool. They look front to back. It's a Citroen. But it looks the same on the front as the back. But they fit in this tiny motorbike parking spot. And they're the coolest little things I've ever seen. Obviously that's the same size as a bike. It's got two seats. We've seen them flying around everywhere. They're just a great little car. We've got a six and a half. There's another one here. A six and a half metre vehicle. These little ones here. Another one there. So we've made it back to the van now. Nothing was missing. Kim is now, frantically, setting them off. Look, there's a dog now. She's looking for a park for the night. Finding it quite difficult this time. Because we are in the middle of the city. And what we've found is park for nights aren't as easy around there. Current guard dog. She's heard of the people. So obviously in and around the city there's not as many places you can park. We found Paris was quite the same, wasn't it? So obviously now we've come back to the vehicle. It's after tea time. It's getting quite late. You have this sort of thing where you've got to take a chance when you're coming to the city. Otherwise you never will come in. But we probably feel like we have to travel out a tiny bit just to get a nice park for night. Because obviously... We're tired now. It's the end of the day. We drove in this morning. We drove from Switzerland in this morning. It's sort of the price you pay for coming to the big cities. But we don't want to avoid them. You want to give the kids the culture. We've been to so many big cities now. We've been to a lot around Europe. So we just want to visit as many as possible. But I do find the cities are a bit of a pain when you want to stay over the night. So Kimmy's going to frantically have a look for that. We're going to try and find somewhere and then we will head there for the night to go head down because we are all tired. We've done quite a lot of travelling in the last few days. If you've been following us along on Instagram we have been through some miles. So the decision's been made. We are heading back to the car park that turned us away earlier on. And we are going to see if everyone's gone. Kimmy's got a bit of a headache. The Starbucks coffee which Emma and I brew for now she said I'll have four shots in it. No I didn't. I said I'll have two shots normal two shots decaf because I like a strong coffee and it's definitely given me four shots. It's blown her socks off to be fair. She's been shaky. Shaky. Give me a headache. I feel like my head's going to explode. So the Italian coffee's definitely done its job if you are feeling a little bit tired. Don't order a four shot iced latte in the roastery. So anyway back to the original plan. We're going back to that car park that turned us away today with the hope that everyone that was there for the day is gone. So you can park there at night time as well to pay extra. If not the only other sort of park up close that is obviously what we want without it being unsafe is about an hour and fifteen away so we're heading fifteen minutes in the opposite direction back to this car park to see whether that's the right one. We'll keep you along with us. Fingers crossed that they are not still full otherwise it's going to be basically an hour and a half back the other way for this park up. Fingers crossed for us people. So it's judgement time. We're in the queue. Kim's drove through the madness of the traffic. There's some nutters here on the Italian roads. He's on his phone. Put your phone down sausage you're on the road. I'm calling the guarder. No it's not the guarder is it? What do they call the police? There's another camper. If this camper gets the last one that's it Kim you didn't get there quick enough. If there's a guy outside waving his arms I'm not going to be happy with him. Is there a guy? It's on the left. Can we make it? Left yeah. On this left here where the car's coming out. So we're going to wait. Come on. Are they going to let us in? Come on out treacle. Come on sausage. There's a tram waiting. There's a car waiting. Thank you sausage. Thank you squire. Right. Let's see. Let's see. He'll take you with us. Here we go. Are we going to be able to get a ticket? Hello. Can we park overnight? Yes. Ah perfect. We made it. We don't have to drive an hour and a half. Kim's made up. She's jacked off a nut on caffeine. She said she wanted you to drive. If anyone's ever seen the film Crank with what's his name? Michael Douglas. No. Michael Douglas. Jason Statham where he's off his nut. Remember Michael Douglas in a film went nuts. Oh yeah. Falling down. Yeah. Kimmy bought a pair of glasses. Kimmy bought a pair of glasses that looked like that I called her Michael Douglas from it. She was fuming. I don't wear them glasses anymore. So we've got a spot. The spot is the tightest spot. But er. Kimmy's going to reverse it in now. Look at this. Like a pro. So yeah. She's reversing it straight in. So this is right in the middle. In the middle of Milan. And you know. You can literally It's a stone throw away from everywhere. Look at this. Here she goes. Reversing the van in. Look at that. She only hit the other cars about 3 times. I tell you this. She's better driving than me. So yeah. There's not much room out for the Starlink tonight without getting in anyone's bloody way. Or getting it ran over. But erm. Yeah. Absolute winner. So made that we don't have to drive an hour and a half. Winner winner. Sheen dinner. And this is how a real woman drives. So that ends our day in Milan. We have travelled over the Swiss border to Italy today. And now we are in a park up car park in the middle of Milan. Next to the train tracks. I don't know what you can see of that there. But that basically is where the trains are going to be coming in all night. Hopefully not too loud. We have set up base camp. We've got the Starlink out. So all the kiddies now are lounging on Aoife's bed. Playing on their games before bedtime. Everything's all set up here. But thank you so much for coming along with us today. Like I said there will be more content coming out with different places. We are going round all of Italy now. So we will show you a lot of places in Italy. Some warmer weather after Switzerland was an absolute wash out. So tomorrow it's going to be Friday. Tomorrow is snow in Switzerland. So we've escaped that snow. But we will be heading to Switzerland on our way back through to the UK. But that will be in a few weeks time. So we will do more content with Switzerland. Like I said. Thank you so much for watching. Please give us a like and a subscribe. Hit that big thumbs up. It all helps the videos. Bye guys.