An Aussie tourist has described the bizarre moment she found her stolen luggage in bushland in Italy after a 'nightmare' experience that began before she even arrived.

Iona Pegley, 24, and her boyfriend Joseph Jelic had their luggage stolen from a car in Sardinia just hours after their airline returned it following a loss in transit.

The Sydneysider described the ordeal as a 'nightmare' but told the Daily Mail the couple were lucky to recover most of their belongings.

'We were having such a nice time and it turned bad so quick,' Ms Pegley said. 

'But in saying that, I’m so grateful for getting almost everything and [our] passports back.'

Ms Pegley said the trouble began on day one when the couple realised their luggage had been left behind in Madrid during a stopover on their flight from Lisbon to Olbia in northern Sardinia.

'When we landed in Olbia, we checked our AirTags, [which are] small Apple tracking devices attached to our luggage, and saw our suitcases were still in Madrid,' she said in a series of TikTok videos detailing the incidents.

'We spoke to the airline and they said they would deliver the bags to us in two days, which would have been day three of the trip.'

The delay forced them to postpone a boat trip with four friends by 24 hours while they waited for their luggage to arrive.

'We were gonna do a boat day on day three, but they said we need to be home for when the bags arrive so that we can sign off to say we've received them,' Ms Pegley said.  

'We really wanted to do the boat day, so we [said], "Let's push the boat day back by a day."' 

Their plan was to collect the bags and leave them in the car while they went out on the water.

However, those plans changed when they were told their bags wouldn't arrive until after their boat departed on day four. 

Since Mr Jelic did not want Ms Pegley to miss the boat trip, the plan was for him to stay behind and collect the bags before walking to the port, where the group would return to pick him up.

However, that plan was also thwarted when staff told the group the boat could not return to the port once it had departed.

He instead drove to a nearby beach, left their belongings in the car and swam out to join the group for the day.

'He parked on a busy street opposite a cafe in broad daylight with chairs out the front, people everywhere and then swam out to us,' Ms Pegley said.

'We all go on the boat and literally [have] the best day ever.'

However, their joy was short-lived when they returned to the car hours later.

'Joey got there before us and was standing there with a stressed and sad look I had never seen before,' Ms Pegley said.

'He goes, "We've been robbed, everything's gone" and he just hugged me. 

'There were some scratch marks to the side of the door and it was almost like they used a tool to get the door open.' 

Ms Pegley said the couple's suitcases, backpacks, passports, electronics and other personal belongings had been stolen from the car.

The couple immediately checked their AirTags and realised their luggage had been dumped in bushes nearby. 

Ms Pegley said they finally got a breakthrough after Mr Jelic used the AirTag's sound feature to locate the device, although retrieving the bags proved to be a painful task.

She said the men had battled 'through a thorn bush' and were 'covered in cuts and were bleeding'.

'But they managed to find our suitcases broken open with all of its contents just scattered everywhere,' Ms Pegley added.

'They literally opened every single little pocket and zip.'

While their passports and backpacks containing electronics remained missing, Ms Pegley said she was still relieved to recover their clothes and other personal belongings. 

She said she then looked at the AirTag she had put in her passport and traced its location to an apartment block.

'It's led us to the corner of an apartment and so we thought someone in this apartment block had our stuff,' Ms Pegley said. 

'We pinged the AirTag, but it didn't [make] any sound.'

When that didn't work, Ms Pegley filed a police report, describing officers as 'really helpful' despite a language barrier.

Mr Jelic then returned to the bushland for a more thorough search. He thought it was strange that whoever took the belongings would dump the suitcases but not the backpacks, and his hunch proved correct. 

'Joseph yells out, "Your passports are here and mine", and I literally started crying,' Ms Pegley said. 

'A lot of expensive items were gone, like Joseph's iPad and headphones, but we were just so relieved to have a lot of our things back and my passports.'

Ms Pegley told the Daily Mail the experience changed the way she travelled for the remainder of her holiday.

'I was definitely more paranoid for the rest of the trip, like not wanting to leave the hotel window open if we were leaving, even if we were on the top level,' she said. 

She also said the incident taught her to never leave her belongings in a car while overseas. 

'I’d say I’m quite a cautious traveler usually, but hadn't ever come across any problems, especially since there's no worry leaving things in your car here in Australia. 

'I am definitely not leaving stuff in the car ever again while travelling.'

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