Hi all I hope someone can help. We are in italy and have a problem with our van

Suddenly, in the morning after a rest of 8 hours, the van wont start. I find out that the pump had no fuel in it. I poor fuel into the pump and she starts. Once running, it drives fine.
If we stop the engine for morethan 2-3 mins, its either very hard to start, or I have to go and poor diesel into the pump and re'prime again.
We eventully got fed up with this and called aa europe and got recovered. the local VW dealer says its the pump and will cost 1000 Euros for a new one, plus fitting! hes just charged me 100 euro to temp fix it.. which actually was him showing me how to poor derv in the pump! argg!
The van was running fine, before, showed no symptoms, poor running at all. The only thing i did notice is that injector 1 is wet (after a 100 mile run), smells like diesel, all other injectors are dry.
If anyone can help, Id love to know. Is it a fixable problem? definty the pump? injector?
One way or another, stopping the engine is causing all the diesel in the pump to diaapear.. !


any other info that will help.. I can try and find. Il in the cafe here for another hour, ..
many many thanks !
wookey