When Barbara and Maurizio performed in Artur Dmitriev's gala in St.Petersburg , another Russian friend (apart from Dasha ) was there: Julia Smirnova, a journalist from Moscow. She had a little chat with Maurizio after the show... here is the content of the e-mail she sent us.

"We spoke after Arthur Dmitriev`s show in Ledoviy Palace in StPetersburg, October 6th 2002. Barbara & Mauri skated their fantastic Olympic dance "I will survive". The Russian crowd really loved this couple!

MM - We are very glad to be invited here, because we love Russia and StPetersburg especially. It is in our heart for many reasons. We have been here five times. And it always was a beautiful experience!

JS - What are you doing these days?
MM- We do other shows all around Italy and Europe basically. Barbara helps to coach. I am organizing events in Italy. It is really interesting.

JS- What did you see in StPetersburg this time?
MM- First of all we saw the airport! It is OK. I can see there are many-many workers here. Personally I am very happy, because this city is beautiful and you can just improve upon it. I wish all the best to StPetersburg, to grow up. Tomorrow morning we will enjoy the city a little bit.

JS- I know you participated in a tour in Sibiria this May...
MM- Amazing place! But it was just strange for us, and for Russian skaters too.

JS- Why?
MM- For everybody it was the first time in Sibiria! But the public there was also really-really nice. They were warm, they just went crazy! When you have this feeling, you understand why are you skating! It was great experience. We often talk about this trip. It was extreme sometimes, bur very nice for my heart.

JS- What do you mean when you say extreme?
MM- It was extreme, because the roads in Sibiria are not very good and we did very long travel to be there. But the ice was OK. And people were so happy to see us, to see this high level of skating. We were happy too.

JS- You and Barbara are cinema stars now...
MM- Oooohh, we participate in the movie in Italy! The title of the movie is is
" CASO MAI " directed by Alessandro D'Alatri. It was a very nice experience. We did it last year, but the movie is still in the cinemas. We represent the love of the two main stars. The movie is about their wedding. The man and the woman are talking with the priest. And the priest is asking: "What do you really think about wedding?" And they are saying that their idea is they are like two skaters. It is very difficult to skate on the ice, but seems easy. We are the metaphor of their love. We follow them during the movie. When they rush in life, we rush on the ice. When they do a lot of job, we do advertisement for them. And when they are pressed by the people, we fall down. ...

We were last to go to the bus. But there was a crowd of Russian girls, all waiting for Mauri! He was the most popular skater among girls, more popular than Olympic champions Anton Sikharulidze and Victor Petrenko. All of the girls tried to have a photo taken with Maurizio and kiss his cheek.