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Italian tourist who crossed Russia on horseback unable to leave due to paper issues

Paola Giacomini covered nearly 5,000 km in Russia, travelling from the border with Mongolia to Russia's northwest

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. Italian traveller Paola Giacomini, who spent nearly a year crossing a vast part of Russia on horseback, told TASS she had been unable to leave the country because she did not get the required documents in time.

"I’m having a minor problem on the border. <...> I need Russia’s permission [to take the horses through the border]. I thought that everything was fine and was waiting for the quarantine period to be over. But the quarantine expired yesterday and I received no permission, although all [veterinary] tests were good and all vaccination has been done," Giacomini said.

The traveller is now staying at the city of Velikie Luki in northwest Russia’s Pskov region. She plans to arrive to Moscow on Wednesday to find out more about the permission, which she is to obtain from Russia’s agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor. Her Russian visa expires on August 3.

A comment from Rosselkhoznadzor officials was not immediately available at the time of the publication.

Giacomini’s journey

The Italian tourist said she and her two horses arrived to Russia from Mongolia last August.

"Together, we covered about 6,800 kilometers. That’s a lot, even for a car. We covered about 1,800 km in Mongolia and then 5,000 in Russia," she said.

Giacomini plans to travel to Lithuania and then to cross Poland, Czech Republic and Austria to get to Italy. She expects to arrive home in December.

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