Michael Bradford, 77, and his wife Elaine, 75, both former software engineers and IT managers, were headed to the village of Sambuca di Sicilia<\/a>\u00a0this month for a property hunt, with the aim of buying a cheap\u00a0house in the village\u2019s picturesque old district.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the new\u00a0Entry\/Exit System (EES)<\/a>, which came into force in mid-October, with biometric controls and more complex airport checks, turned their planned one-week holiday into \u201ca nightmare\u201d, they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t After queuing for hours at the machine checks the couple were so angry and frustrated that they gave up on continuing their journey down to Sicily.<\/p>\n The Bradfords are now seriously rethinking the option of buying any property in Italy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur plan was to rent a car at Malpensa and drive to Sicily, but we were so exhausted once through the checks that we simply gave up\u201d, Michael Bradford told\u00a0The i Paper.<\/p>\n \u201cWe decided to exit the airport, spend two days instead in Milan just to wind down after all the stress, and then return back home via London Heathrow without visiting Sambuca,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the couple were expecting some extra challenges at the airport for non-EU travellers, what they experienced went far beyond their worst fears, they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n When their plane landed in Malpensa and they disembarked, they said they were caught up in \u201cutter chaos\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n There were \u201cendless\u201d queues of passengers lining up for biometric checks, with many loudly complaining in despair against their delays. Meanwhile, airport staff were \u201chelpless\u201d in keeping the situation under control.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt took us two and a half hours to get through the checks, my wife almost fainted\u00a0from\u00a0fatigue and my arthritic knees were shaky. It was hell,\u201d Bradford said.<\/p>\n Malpensa Airport authorities declined to comment.<\/p>\n Last month,\u00a0airlines warned<\/a>\u00a0of added time and tech needed to process passengers under the new system. British passengers flying to Europe were warned they could\u00a0face hours of delays<\/a>. At Malpensa Airport, passengers\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0videos of the queues\u00a0online.<\/p>\n According to Bradford, there were few machines at the airport for the new immigration controls, and everyone was trying to squeeze in from the sides to skip the line.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as we were done, we were so exhausted that we exited the airport to breathe some fresh air and changed our travel plan\u201d, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n After such a negative experience, they are no longer sure of their plans, as the new rules, they say, have made \u201cBrexit passengers even more wary and scared of traveling anywhere\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n The couple, who have no kids, had been drawn in by the housing scheme launched by Sambuca\u2019s authorities over the past few years, in an attempt to bring new residents into the area.\u00a0Dozens of expats have snapped up cheap properties in the village and then restyled them for as little as \u00a317,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always dreamt of spending summer and other festivities in Italy, but I guess our timing in looking for a home might be really bad. It may be too late,\u201d said Bradford.\u00a0<\/p>\n The couple had planned to see around five different properties with a local agent on their Sicily trip last month, and had budgeted a maximum of \u00a353,000 for a two-bedroom house with a panoramic balcony that they could enjoy, particularly during summers. They were hoping to get a turnkey home without the need for renovation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve read so much online about Sambuca, and were lured by pictures of its Arab-like, exotic architecture, the winding alleys and the slow-paced vibe of Italy\u2019s south,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cThe village has a great location, close to the beaches, surrounded by pristine hills dotted with vineyards. We\u2019d be sunbathing while drinking wine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n However, they now doubt things will get any easier at Italian airports even once the initial phase of the EES system is complete and the new procedures are fully up-and-running.<\/p>\n \u201cThose queues are just putting us off in buying property, particularly the thought of having to face all the chaos again every time we would come to Sicily to enjoy our holiday home,\u201d Bradford said.<\/p>\n Their forced two-day break in Milan also turned out gloomy, as it was raining and there \u201cwasn\u2019t much to do or see\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very concerned that facing new airport rules and red tape in future will become our worst nightmare,\u201d Bradford added, and that \u201cholidays in Europe will no longer be something pleasant to even consider\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New EU border systems, which came into force in mid-October, turned a couple’s planned one-week fact-finding trip into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[26222,9,10,6504,13,14,6,56,371,91711,11,12,15,16,5,12903,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-157310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-airports","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-brexit","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-immigration","16":"tag-italy","17":"tag-italy-travel","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-sicily","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-world","27":"tag-world-news","28":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115475149782213832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEI_272418584.jpg\")
The old district of Sambuca di Sicilia (Photo: Silvia Marchetti)<\/p>\n