Three Italian tourists forced to sleep in their car because they could not remember the location of their guest house were yesterday reunited with their luggage after the owner of the guest house contacted gardaí following a radio appeal.
Mr Simone Mariotti, Mr Roberto Paciello and Mr Andrea Fornasiero arrived in Ireland on Sunday without having pre-booked their accommodation. Following a trip to the Guinness Storehouse, they booked into a guest house in the city centre and went into town for something to eat.
However, when they tried to find their way back to their accommodation, they realised they had forgotten to take down the name and address of the guest house, and had no idea where they were staying.
After spending two days searching in vain for accommodation, the tourists eventually went to Kevin Street Garda station in the city centre on Tuesday.
"They had a vague idea of where they had left their luggage, but could not tell if the guest house was located in north or south Dublin," said Ms Lisa Kennedy of the Garda Tourist Victim Support (GTVS) unit, called in to help with the search.
Deciding not to let the fact that they had lost their luggage spoil their holiday, the three travelled to Waterford where they were eventually informed that their luggage had been located in the Charlotte Guest House on Dublin's Manor Street.
Driving to Dublin, they parked their car by chance in Manor Street, where the Charlotte Guest House is situated. Sitting around a table, with the name and address of their bed and breakfast clearly written on a piece of paper, the three last night admitted they were just relieved to have their belongings - including airline tickets and drivers' licences - returned to them. "We're usually not very lucky people," said Mr Fornasiero, spokesman for the group.
"The media attention, it is very new to us.We can't think lost bags is so popular a story.
"We hope to come back to stay in the same B&B next summer," he said.
"Apart from our 'little problem', people have been very kindly helping us. The story, it finished very good."