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The Last Hunt For Nazi Gold S01E05 The Italian Job NOW H 264
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00:02Italy 1943 Mussolini falls fascism cracks Nazi Germany's strongest ally switches
00:14sides and joins the Allies for a moment it looks like liberation it doesn't last
00:30September 1943 the Germans hit back its operation AXA they sweep down the peninsula
00:39reinstall Mussolini and turn Italy into a puppet regime of a collapsing Reich then
00:46comes the prize inside the Bank of Italy lies the National Reserve around 120 tons
00:54of gold worth around 17 billion US dollars today under German control it's moved out
01:02of Rome first to Milan then north to the fortress of Franzenfester buried in the
01:10mountains of South Tyrol that is a vault with a view but the gold doesn't stay
01:16there in 1944 shipments begin moving again this time towards Germany and by the end
01:23game that paper trail it's turned into smoke some of the gold is said to have
01:29reached Berlin some vanishes into the confusion of a continent in freefall and
01:36that's where the rumors begin lost convoys quiet deals Alpine hiding places so
01:43where did the gold end up who took it and how much of it never came back
02:00I'm Guy Walters I'm a historian I'm a journalist and I'm a sort of explorer of all the hidden secrets
02:09of the
02:09Second World War and the Nazi period
02:14hi I'm Justine I'm the international woman of adventure I speak many languages I'm the
02:21perfect person to hunt for some Nazi gold
02:29together we've crossed borders track rumors and dug through more than our fair share of
02:35cold mud and colder archives now we're on the trail of one of the most enduring legends of the
02:43Italian front the missing gold of the Banker d'Italia seized by the Nazis in 1943 and scattered as their
02:52Empire fell apart the Nazis they they moved in quickly and that gold in the Bank of Italy it was
02:59not gonna stay there for long believe you me our mission follow those routes north dig into bunkers
03:06and fortresses test the rumors and follow the paper trails and find out whether this lost Italian gold
03:13is real treasure still hidden in the Alps or just another wartime myth
03:37summer 1943 Sicily has already fallen the Americans and the British own those beaches now and they are
03:46harbored in the islands dusty old ports for the Germans it's a cold shock the war has finally crossed the
03:54water and landed in Italy's backyard
04:11in 1943 Italy had one of the largest gold reserves in Europe it had over 127 tons of bullion and
04:21it had
04:21coins with bars and they're all stacked in the Bank of Italy right in the heart of Rome so when
04:29the Allies
04:29land Berlin has to move quickly and those Nazis pour into Italy incredibly fast the third right basically
04:40treated Italy after its collapse as a great big bank you know ready to be emptied and that's why
04:47essentially the Nazis turn up at the Bank of Italy in Rome and they just help themselves to all the
04:53gold for
04:53safekeeping Vincenzo Attellini was head of the Bank of Italy and when the Nazis turned up one day he had
05:01no
05:02choice but to hand over his country's gold now that gold was put into boxes sent north and hidden away
05:09and
05:10while it was still Italy's gold on paper in reality it had been moved to places where paperwork meant
05:16nothing at all some of that gold was recovered some simply disappeared we're only going to know how much
05:24of that story uh you know still lies buried by continuing the search it never ends
05:45so we are going to go to Italy uh we're going to go to the Alto Adige in the very
05:51north of Italy I love
05:52that part of Italy it is lovely one of my favorites so we're going to go to Italy here
05:57we start in northern Italy in the south Tyrol think forests bunkers think SS convoys moving by night in
06:07late 1943 then Fortezza an alpine fortress and a perfect place to lose a few tons of bullion I've
06:19got to say that if you're gonna store a hundred and twenty four tons of gold bullion you're gonna
06:25do it here at Fortress Fortezza over a hundred tons passed through Nazi hands and some shipments simply
06:35vanished and then we go to bunker three opened years later and one of the most mysterious sites in
06:45the whole area and just above Fortress Fortezza three sites one missing fortune to find it we've got to
06:54go underground so you're up for a bunker fantastic tunnels bunkers yes that's all up my street
07:21as we cross the border from Austria into Italy there's a notable change of style and pace on the
07:28roads the Italians bow to nobody so I need to do my best to keep up and stay in the
07:33fast lane what do you
07:36say about my driving style though well that it's quite a haphazard you know like haphazard yeah okay
07:43not the last minute this is going well this is going well the lucky hell okay this is like all
07:51men
07:52I'm a brilliant driver because my ego is out there forget that okay yeah it's going our brilliant
07:57drive thank you justine this conversation never happened this conversation yeah it's over
08:07we're heading into the alpine hills of South Tyrol where bunkers still lie hidden in all that rock
08:14they were built along Italy's northern alpine border in the late 1930s and Mussolini's alpine wall was
08:22intended to defend against potential invasion then in 1943 everything changed Italy surrendered the
08:32Germans moved in and the bunkers fell into Nazi hands as the right collapsed and that gold vanished
08:39these bunkers stopped being defenses and start looking like hiding places if you wanted to hide 24 tons of
08:48gold they're exactly the right place but before we head for those bunkers and the fortress at Fortetza we've
08:59got to go to the Neustift Abbey in South Tyrol it's here we're meeting a friend and historian Madeleine
09:09Johnson and she is going to enlighten us as to the turbulent history of those Italian gold reserves
09:21in all these transfers of gold they've been keeping track and they weigh it and whatever but at some
09:28point in Germany it gets transferred from larger bags into smaller bags so that's where discrepancies
09:36show up because they're like well 50 bags came in but 100 went out it's like wait what or you
09:41know we
09:42got 100 but they said so that sort of adds to this discrepancy it's not just Italian gold because when
09:51they invaded France they took gold they took gold from Yugoslavia they took gold from Greece and they
09:58took gold from Albania and so this stuff is all in the basement of this place north of here in
10:06a region
10:07of Italy in a fort Fortress Fortetza that's right in September 1943 those 127 tons of gold were stashed
10:18away deep within the rocks and corridors of Fortress Fortetza and there it lies ready for whatever
10:27nefarious purposes the Nazis may have for it now we understood better the history of the area and with
10:37our great lesson from Madeleine we felt ready to find a key location where all those Nazi gold rumors
10:45leaders were going to lead us
10:49in the hospital praise to God I got down on the knees
10:55so you're gone then what's your favorite car uh my favorite car my ultimate faith is the Porsche 911
11:03Porsche Porsche you're one of those people who says Porsche are you Porsche Porsche
11:07Wow well you've got a Porsche I have what have
11:10you got a Cayman a Cayman I don't even know what that is it's a it's an alligator or something
11:18okay we've just basically a driving through a massive road works uh actually they're building
11:24a massively new road and this is the way to the bunker and bloody hell look at this the big
11:31rocks
11:32we're going to drive through.
11:33I'm glad we got the Jeep, but we will see how we do.
11:38The place is where I end up trying to find Nazi gold.
11:44Right, here we go.
11:46We have arrived.
11:48OK, I admit we are in a bloody roadworks.
11:53You promised me boats, diving, all sorts of adventures,
11:59and you take me to a building site.
12:02Yeah, OK, I have to admit, I'm sorry.
12:04This is about the first time I've apologised to you.
12:07This was a railway line where those two yellow diggers are,
12:13and you can just so I see the remnants of the railway line,
12:15and there was a railway bridge, and there was a nice track here,
12:18and instead we've driven through all that mud and stuff,
12:22so thank God we got the handy Jeep.
12:23Anyway, right, we've got to get over this,
12:25and then we're going up there,
12:26and we're going to find something called the Kukkelbunker.
12:34This way.
12:37Here we go, and I think the bunker,
12:39it says the bunker is somewhere around here.
12:46It's going to be somewhere here.
12:49Well, it looks like...
12:50Yes, yes, it's here.
12:52That is a secret bunker.
12:54That, ladies and gentlemen, that is where you're going to hide gold.
12:57Ow.
12:58I don't want...
12:59This is nasty.
13:00I don't want to step in the pool again.
13:01This is nasty.
13:02This is definitely...
13:05Definitely a...
13:06You could hide something here easily.
13:09At first glance, those bunkers around Fortepsa
13:11seem like the relics of the Nazi war machine.
13:14Cold, concrete remnants of a vanished empire.
13:18There's some steps.
13:20You know, obviously totally dressed for the occasion.
13:22Yes.
13:22I'll let you check out the room first.
13:25Going down, going down.
13:26I think one of the problems with hunting for Nazi gold, I discovered,
13:31was that you've got to have a pretty strong nose.
13:34Gratifying, no smell of urine or faeces, which is very rare for us bunkerologists.
13:41Okay, I can confirm no gold is down here.
13:45What there is, is a load of...
13:48Someone has dumped their kind of bathroom and kitchen tiles in this place.
13:54This is not a place for gold, as much as it looks amazing.
13:58It's a concrete room.
14:01Okay.
14:02Yeah, I was expecting that.
14:04I am depressed.
14:05This has been a dreadful mistake.
14:07It will look so much better on Google.
14:09Well, perhaps we'll have better luck at the fortress itself.
14:15It's time to get back on the road and head up to Fortress Fortepsa.
14:31Welcome to the Festum Fortepsa.
14:35We are here because those naughty Nazis decided to take all of the Bank of Italy's gold reserves,
14:45124 tonnes of gold, and bring them here.
14:49So about a fifth of it went missing.
14:52And there are some people who think that that 24 tonnes of gold, it could be right behind
14:58me.
14:59We've got to go into that fortress and have a look for it.
15:02Let's do it.
15:03Waiting for us at Fortepsa is a historian who has spent years chasing this story.
15:10I am Tony.
15:11Tony.
15:12Tony is a man who knows about the gold in these walls better than anyone else.
15:18Wow.
15:21It's enormous.
15:22Believe you me, Fortepsa is a big old place.
15:26Yeah, it's got at least 400 rooms.
15:29It's got countless passageways, stairs, nooks, crannies, lifts, great big armoured doors, endless
15:35kind of caverns, caves.
15:37It's a rabbit, Warren.
15:39Perfect for hiding your gold.
15:42Is there any gold still here?
15:44Yeah.
15:44Under my bed?
15:49Tony's gold bed.
15:54So what I can really tell here, what's really obvious, is that the fortress is built on rock
16:03and in rock.
16:04On rock and in rock.
16:06And for this reason, a very important fort was built here, which was supposed to close
16:11this valley, close this passage and also control the passage to the Val Posteria, towards the
16:17east of Italy, let's say.
16:19And the same reason why they were built here, later after the First World War, a whole series
16:26of bunkers.
16:27By the Second World War, Fortepsa is little more than a kind of legacy fortification.
16:32You know, it's still used by the Italians, but it has real, no strategic or kind of tactical
16:40value.
16:40But it will prove to be a significant hidey hole.
16:50The gold was brought to Fortepsa in November 1943, because they, who had been requisitioned
16:57to Central Bank at the Bank of Italy in Rome, it was basically German units of German military
17:05soldiers.
17:07However, they requisitioned this gold on behalf of the fascist government.
17:12And in their escape towards Milan, then after, they returned this gold to the disposal
17:18of the fascist government.
17:21Do we know why Fortepsa was chosen specifically for the gold?
17:26This was a special area because here, in the provinces of Bolzano, Trento and Belluno,
17:33there was a German operation zone, called the Foralpen operation zone.
17:41However, it was under the direct control of the gold fighter of Innsbruck, Franz Hofer.
17:50Hoffer positioned himself as the kind of protector of Tyrol.
17:54And he often styled himself as kind of deeply tied to the Alpine region.
18:00And what he did was to support this kind of massive network of defensive constructions,
18:06you know, in Tyrol and the Fortepsa, therefore, gains this new significance under Hoffer's watch.
18:13So, Hoffer was technically responsible for holding on to the area as part of the supposed Alpine fortress scheme.
18:27I love this.
18:29This is a proper cave.
18:34Gold arrived here.
18:36Everything that remained, everything that was still in Rome, was brought here.
18:41It amounted to about 120 tons.
18:44These were ingots, typical national ingots, bearing the mark of the Bank of Italy,
18:50packed in wooden or metal crates, in ledertaschen, basically leather bags,
18:55or in small barrels filled with gold coins.
18:58Much of the gold was then sent toward Berlin and to various destinations.
19:03From early 1944, the Nazis began moving the gold out.
19:08Two convoys went to Berlin and a third went to Switzerland.
19:13In total, we can estimate about 94 tons left Italy that year.
19:19For the Third Reich, this was hard currency.
19:21You know, this is money to keep that war machine alive, even though the Third Reich is clearly crumbling.
19:29It's spring 1945.
19:31The war is nearing its end.
19:33But up here in the Alps, it's still biting.
19:36Because that campaign by the Allies to take Italy
19:39has been one of the most violent and drawn out of the whole Second World War.
19:46Nearly every gorge, every mountainside, every hill has involved the most vicious fighting,
19:55with machine gun fire raining down from the slopes, mortars bursting in the trees.
20:00It has been the most brutal campaign and has cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
20:08But eventually, that German line breaks.
20:12It was later found and seized by American units, by American infantry units,
20:18which found, still here, 25 to 26 tons of gold.
20:2325 tons of gold still hidden inside the fortress.
20:29As the Reich collapses, soldiers enter the fortress and find barrels of gold left behind in the rush to retreat.
20:40Over 150 barrels and crates, a forgotten vault.
20:46The treasure is eventually returned to Italy.
20:55Justine and I wanted to see with our own eyes just how much gold was actually found here.
21:01Justine, welcome to my gold room.
21:13Here it is. This is a depiction of how much gold there was here.
21:16That is pretty much the size of our average garden shed.
21:19Actually, when you look at it, it's kind of surprisingly small for something that's worth so much.
21:24You know, it's proof that, you know, vast fortunes can just fit in very few steel boxes.
21:31If someone gave you that, you'd be very happy because that amount of gold is worth today 10, 11 billion
21:38pounds.
21:39Imagine, however, about a fifth of that might be missing.
21:45But what of the Italian gold which had made its way to Berlin and then perhaps into Switzerland?
21:51Because while the gold in Berlin was recovered and returned to the post-war Italian government,
21:56Switzerland has always been notoriously tight-lipped about the treasures which came its way in the final stages of World
22:05War II.
22:06But that is for another day.
22:12Here at Fortetza, the walls are now quiet.
22:15The vault is now empty.
22:17There is no forgotten hoard.
22:18Just cold stone and empty tunnels.
22:21Whatever passed through here is now long gone.
22:24That gold now remains a kind of ghost story.
22:27And the search for what's missing has to move on.
22:36Even though we've drawn a blank at Fortetza, we treasure hunters don't give up that easily.
22:42So we start hatching plans, tracing old roots, looking into those rumours.
23:04It's time to head to the eternal city, back to where it all began.
23:10If there are more clues out there, the chances are I'm going to find them in Rome.
23:23Mussolini is booted out in July 1943 and the armistice takes place in September.
23:29And the Nazis know they've got to act quickly if they want to take control of Italy.
23:33They seize railways, buildings, you name it.
23:36They are going to take over this entire country.
23:39But there's one building near here which they really want to get their hands on.
23:44And that's where I'm going to next.
24:00That building behind me is the Italian central bank, the Banca d'Italia.
24:05And it's here in September 1943 that the Nazis turned up, knocked on the door.
24:11And they said to the boss, Vincenzo Azzolini, we want to have your gold.
24:15And Azzolini is going, I'm not going to give you my gold.
24:18But the Germans are insistent.
24:20They say, we want to have your gold for safe keeping.
24:23And Azzolini realizes he has no choice because if he refuses, the Germans will carry out reprisals.
24:31So on the 23rd to the 27th of September, the Germans turn up, they go to the vault and they
24:37take away 119 tons of gold.
24:42The irony is today, if the Germans wanted Italy's gold, all they have to do is take it from there
24:48and put it across the road at the Deutsche Bank right here.
24:56Now that I'm here in Rome, there's one place I absolutely have to investigate.
25:01Monte Serrate, just 40 kilometres from the capital.
25:06Now, after Italy switched sides in September 1943, the Germans moved in and they moved in fast.
25:12And what they did was to occupy this vast bunker complex started by Mussolini that was, you know, buried deep
25:21into the mountainside.
25:23And it's from here, there was a kind of nerve centre for the German command from where Rome was defended,
25:30orders were issued.
25:31And when the retreat would come, the tunnels would be sealed and left behind.
25:36So if you're going to hunt for missing gold, this is not a bad place to start.
25:42In fact, it's a brilliant place to start.
25:45There's only one man to do it with, and that is the mayor of nearby Sant'Oresti, Professor Gregory Paolucci.
25:53Nice to meet you. The bunker is this way.
25:55Yes, the entrance is under the missile.
25:57OK, let's go, let's go. Take me down your bunker.
26:00So this is the original entrance, right here?
26:03No, we have 22 entrances. 22 entrances.
26:05Yes.
26:25And here we are inside one of the most complex and mysterious bunker systems in Europe.
26:33Built on the orders of Mussolini from 1937, it was meant to stretch for 14 kilometres, but he only managed
26:42to complete four.
26:45From here, it was believed that the Italians could continue their war effort even if they were driven out of
26:51Rome.
26:51And at the very moment when gold and valuables were being moved across Italy, rumours began to circulate that some
27:01of that gold passed through, right here, hidden somewhere underground, even if only for a short time.
27:09OK, we've been walking for quite a long time now, and I want to know where you're taking me.
27:14It's a surprise.
27:15For me?
27:16Let me show you, yeah.
27:17OK.
27:17What are you searching for here?
27:19Well, I'm looking for gold.
27:21Oh, let's try.
27:22Let's try the search.
27:23Please tell me you've got gold.
27:24Yeah, it's a surprise for you.
27:25Let's go there.
27:26Gregory leads me into a room deep inside the bunker.
27:34Oh, wow.
27:37It's a space, he claims, that was once filled with gold and is now decorated with replica gold bars and
27:45ingots.
27:47As is stolen all Italian gold ingots from Italian bank, imagine that only 22 tons of gold came back after
27:56the war.
27:57Yeah.
27:58So, the most important part remained outside, probably.
28:02So, it's not strange that from Rome, only in about one hour by car, or imagine that here was the
28:09commander-in-chief, Albert Kesserling, asked for gold.
28:13So, a part could be reasonable, that could be brought here and Kesserling taken one part.
28:24One part about 69 or 72 tons of ingots.
28:28We have only witnesses.
28:30OK.
28:31It's not simple to get witnesses and even many histories after and well documented even a man, a murder.
28:42A murder.
28:43A murder?
28:43Yeah.
28:44Yeah, because who brought the gold here was not the German Wehrmacht, it was the SS.
28:58And they brought the gold here, they obliged the German soldiers of the Wehrmacht to download 72 tons of ingots,
29:08hiding them inside a particular tunnel of this bunker.
29:14Then they walled up.
29:16Then they walled up.
29:16The SS were not obliged to a military law.
29:19They had a political, political police.
29:22So, they shoot to 12 soldiers.
29:26One of them was hardly deeply wounded, but not killed.
29:31So, he succeeded to go out and to save himself.
29:35After the second war period, in 1946, these soldiers came back.
29:44According to Gregory, the soldier who survived the SS shooting and who returned for the gold was called Willy Wehrmacht
29:51from Hamburg.
29:53Now, some time later, he was found brutally murdered, believed by some to have been silenced to stop him revealing
30:01the whereabouts of the missing Italian gold.
30:05So, many people started to search for gold outside the military zone, the army zone, and inside the tunnel.
30:13Italian government classified many documents from the 60s and 70s.
30:18And there was the act of a military trial in which there were five generals of the Italian army.
30:26And the judge asked to these five generals, you were spending many money in 1967 and 1974 to search for
30:37gold of Kesterling or Kapler gold and not too far from Rome in Montessorate.
30:42And the suggestion is they've been using this money to hunt for gold. Is that correct?
30:49Yeah, and imagine that the question of the judge was today clear to us, but the answer of the general
30:56was blank.
30:58Here, searching for gold in 60s, late 60s and 70s, were not only searchers for galleons and treasures,
31:06but Italian army, Italian intelligence, Italian secret service, spending many public money.
31:13Do they find any gold?
31:14We don't know.
31:15But imagine that the mystery of the gold continues because many Italian, even national institutes, I can't give you the
31:25name,
31:25are well interested in searching for gold inside this tunnel, even in next month.
31:31What Gregory has divulged here, it's utterly fascinating.
31:36I mean, the idea that the SS may have secreted gold here and even murdered Wehrmacht soldiers who transported it
31:43is one hell of a claim.
31:45What I've learned here in Montessorate is that of all the places in Italy where there still might be gold,
31:52this could just be the place.
31:55I am totally intrigued. I want to spend a lot more time here.
31:59But I know I've got to get back to Fortetza and rejoin Justine, who, while I was away, managed to
32:07get access to the bunker near Fort Fortetza we'd been to before.
32:14Only this time, she's enlisted the help of a local expert.
32:23When it comes to bunkers and back roads, we turn again to our friend Tony, the man who knows the
32:30hills and tunnels around Fortetza better than anyone else.
32:39Our tour of the bunkers of Alto Wehrmacht continues.
32:44And we've got Tony here to lead us to bunker number three.
32:51You know what? Up here in the Italian Alps, every path is uphill both ways.
32:56I love my hills, don't I?
32:58You love your hills.
33:00By the third switchback, you start to wonder if the real hidden treasure is just a nice little level point
33:08on which to take a breather.
33:14Summer 1944.
33:16The Allies are pushing north and that Nazi grip on Italy is starting to loosen.
33:21And suddenly Fortetza, it doesn't feel safe anymore.
33:25So the gold, it's moved again.
33:27Away from the fortress and up into the mountains, towards the bunkers that honeycomb the entire area.
33:34They're like kind of underground villages of concrete and rock.
33:38You've got corridor after corridor, room after room.
33:41If you want to make a few tons of gold just vanish in a hurry, you cannot ask for a
33:48better place.
33:50Where is this bloody bunker anyway?
33:52We've been walking for years and I think that it's still up here, so I'm going.
33:57The bunker is here.
33:58There.
34:00It's over there.
34:01OK.
34:02Really?
34:03OK.
34:06OK.
34:07I'm not sure where he's taking the...
34:10I'm always distrustful of men like this leading me into their bunkers.
34:13You can go on your own then.
34:15Right, OK.
34:26Proper bunker door thing here, look at this.
34:30That's made out of 29 inches of steel or whatever it is.
34:35Bloody hell, look at this.
34:40OK.
34:41Looks like he's got a... looks like he's got a secret door.
34:45Sorry.
34:48Finally, this is looking like the real deal.
34:54Oh!
34:56Alice in Wonderland.
35:00That is the most theatrical bunker I've ever seen.
35:03Bunker 3 has got such a classic entrance.
35:06I mean, it's got the most bunker, bunker entrance you can imagine.
35:13It's got to have gold behind it.
35:15Right.
35:17In we go.
35:19You go first.
35:20No, no, you go first.
35:21There's spiders for you there.
35:23Snakes.
35:24In we go.
35:25Oh, my God, it's freezing!
35:30Deep in the heart of the mountains of South Tyrol, Justine and I are in part of the bunker complex,
35:37which surrounds the infamous Fortezza fortress, where it is believed the Nazis smuggled several tons of gold seized towards the
35:46end of the war from the Banca d'Italia.
35:51Let's go.
35:53It's a little cool here.
35:55We are underground.
35:57Are there 10 degrees here?
36:00Yes, now in the summer it's 10 or 12 degrees.
36:03The moment we step inside, those walls, they kind of feel like they're closing in a bit.
36:08I mean, everything's very claustrophobic, it's very airless, there's no natural light.
36:12I found it a real nightmare.
36:15I wasn't worried about ghosts.
36:16I wasn't even beginning to get worried about finding gold.
36:18I just didn't really want to be trapped in a concrete box cut into a mountainside.
36:24What is the size of this bunker?
36:28About 500 square meters.
36:30500 square meters?
36:32Okay, that's big, very big.
36:34However, the total extent is more than one hectare, more than 10,000 square meters.
36:40Wow.
36:41And when was this built?
36:42Around 1939.
36:46Bunker 3 is one of the most enigmatic remnants of military infrastructure in northern Italy.
36:54When it was finally reopened decades later, parts of the structure appeared to have been disturbed.
37:01You've got kind of mountings for safes and storage cabinets ripped out.
37:05Concrete floor in certain sections shows signs of having been cut away or lifted.
37:11And we couldn't find any official post-war records of what was going on here.
37:16You know, no really useful military logs to explain any changes.
37:20So you have a kind of vacuum of information into which fills questions and theories and rumors.
37:25And the big question is, could some of those 25 tons of missing gold been temporarily stored right here?
37:33Attention, sleeping.
37:35Attention, attention.
37:36Attention, attention.
37:36And it's wet.
37:37Watch out, guys.
37:38This is genuinely slippery.
37:43What are all these rooms for?
37:46Munition deposit.
37:48Just deposit rooms.
37:49They look a bit like store rooms, basically.
37:51Yes.
37:53Tiny hotel rooms.
37:54Yeah.
37:55It's getting colder.
37:57Oh.
37:59I know I'm moaning a lot, but are you cold, Justine?
38:02Well, I've got my pure raw Italian jacket.
38:05Okay.
38:06Well, I'm just wearing my French cotton jacket and it's not working.
38:09It's all over all for swanning around Italian bars and cafes.
38:13But it's no good for this kind of bunker exploration.
38:16This is useless.
38:17I'm not sure you're going to get a hot coffee or a hot cappuccino around here either.
38:20No.
38:21Wow.
38:22Okay.
38:22On it goes.
38:24It doesn't bloody end.
38:27Tony has told me he's got a little secret room at the end.
38:32Show me your secret.
38:36Let's see Tony's secret.
38:40Oh, qué bello.
38:42Your favourite princess here.
38:45Oh, my God.
38:47It's Spider World.
38:48And this is your room for tonight.
38:51This is horrible.
38:53Antonio seemed perfectly at home in this kind of arachnid colony.
38:57I, for one, wanted to get the hell out of this dark world of creepy spiders.
39:02I'm getting out of here.
39:03I don't want to be here anymore.
39:05Oh, come on, guys.
39:10Oh.
39:13But just as we near the exit, an unannounced visitor suddenly appears.
39:19Hello.
39:19Hello.
39:19Hello.
39:21Bonjour, Lam.
39:21Bonjour, Lam.
39:22Very well.
39:23Very well.
39:23Out of the shadows just appeared this somewhat burly individual in a kind of quasi-military
39:30uniform.
39:31And no one had any idea what he was doing there.
39:34What brings you here to this bunker?
39:37I am normally looking for the bunkers around the Europe, so it's mine.
39:42I'm just ripping from the bunker to the bunkers.
39:45Oh, I see.
39:45We have a lot of in Czech and Portland as well.
39:48Okay.
39:49So you're here as a tourist?
39:50Yeah.
39:51Okay.
39:51So you're wearing an army hat, a beret.
39:54Yeah, yeah.
39:55But this is a Czech one, yeah.
39:56I see.
39:57So, I see.
39:58So, you're dressed up.
40:00I see.
40:00We thought you were a soldier.
40:01Yeah.
40:02You're just, okay.
40:03You're dressed up.
40:04Yeah, okay.
40:04And I'm looking how the Italians are prepared for the next war with the Russians people,
40:09you know?
40:09Okay.
40:11Yeah.
40:11Okay.
40:12Good.
40:12Well, we will let you explore.
40:14Okay.
40:15Bye-bye.
40:16Bye-bye.
40:17Okay.
40:28Do we lock him up now?
40:29Yeah, let's shut it in.
40:41Of course, we didn't shut him in.
40:43He was simply one of the many historical enthusiasts, shall we say, who loves to explore bunker complexes.
40:51Now, I would be pretty devastated if he managed to stumble across the gold that we had been looking for.
40:57This is what happens when you do programs like this.
40:59You know that these places just attract the most diverse range of people you can possibly imagine.
41:08I mean, I've got to confess, you know, we're not the most normal people ourselves hunting for Nazi gold, but
41:13what the hell?
41:14Well, in the postwar years, Italy, of course, refused to let this twirl down.
41:44story fade. And after several complex negotiations, she got back all her gold. At least we think she
41:51did. Now, the head of the Banca d'Italia at the time, Vincenzo Azzolini, was put on trial after
41:58the war and was accused of having willingly given that gold over to the Nazis. But ultimately he
42:07was pardoned because it was found that he was completely coerced. Azzolini had no choice but
42:13to hand over his country's gold. Now, at the end of the war, we see the bank's integrity
42:18restored and justice, however imperfect, began to be served. I've rather enjoyed my time at
42:25Festung Fortezza. I'm loving Italy. We're loving Italy because of the food and the people and
42:31the fashion, which is why we're trying to look cool here in Italy, not that Tony was that
42:36representative of Italian.
42:46I was determined I was going to find something. It doesn't matter because next time we are
42:55going to the daddy of Nazi gold locations. That, boys and girls, is Lake Toklitz.
43:08There is no place more associated with the hunt for Nazi gold than there. And we are going
43:15to meet some legendary figures with some extraordinary stories to tell. Justine and I are going to
43:23go there and we are going to look for it. Wish us luck. This is the big one.
44:04I'm out.
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