Joey and Larry, the Gilbert Gottfrieds of the animal world, are entertaining the Racers at the Spanish Riding School by riding on the backs of two Lipizzaner horses who are being chased by Monty and Holly. Fermin is mooing in the corner, having eaten too much Sacher Torte, Douglas, Stravinsky and Zhivago are sleeping, and Ibrahim and Omara are trying to persuade Bella to eat some of their wiener schnitzel feast. Bella has been noticeably losing weight since the beginning of the Race.

All this stops when Phil and Koko return to the Pet Stop and announce that the Havana pair have defected through the United States embassy and will be going back to Florida. 

The Racers fall silent for a minute, then Hercules and Maxx start barking happily. Bella meows and eats, and the rest go back to their usual Pet Stop madness. Koko, how do you see the rest of the Race going?

“Koko love clown monkeys, Koko love little horses, big horn cows. Bad bad big mouths gone. Koko love All Ball dogs, All Ball cat. All Ball cat eat eat.”

The New York police dogs, who were the first team to arrive at the Pet Stop in Vienna, are the first to leave. They receive their first clue:

The Route Info reads, "Take the train to Siena, Italy, home of the famous Palio horse race that has been run every year since medieval times." Teams will find their next clue at the Piazza del Campo.

The dogs run off, with Da Bulls, Bella and Douglas, and the donkeys trailing.
 
When they arrive at the Vienna train station, they find that the next train to Siena won’t leave for four more hours, allowing the rest of the pack to catch up.

Meredith waddles after some similarly-dressed members of the Vienna Philharmonic on their way to a performance:

Holly checks out the train schedule home to London:

The Vienna-Siena train finally leaves, and Fermin has to be reminded by his Papa not to stick his horns out the window.

Larry distracts the train's engineer so that Joey can momentarily sneak into the cabin and take the controls:

Omara goes to the dining car, followed by Douglas who is hoping to get some apple strudel and the Russian Blues, who find decorated Russian Easter eggs and bat them down the aisles.

Bella happily eats a dish of trout from the same pond that Franz Schubert once wrote a song about, after which she and Douglas join the Russians for some Easter egg soccer.

Zhivago befriends a Russian passenger, and together they persuade the train's strolling musician to play "Lara's Theme".

The four cats later become so engrossed in their egg game that they don’t really notice the train’s arrival in Siena, so the lemurs and penguins are the first pairs off the train.

Ernesto and Fermin clear the crowd out and are the first to arrive at the Piazza del Campo and receive their Road Block clue:

One member of the team has to run around the Palio track.

As thousands of locals cheer, Ernesto takes off at a brisk pace, followed closely by Larry, and then by Ibrahim, Monty, Maxx and Burgess.

Stravinsky is halfway around the course when Douglas starts, but Douglas also finds Alejandrito making his way slowly but surely across the track. He gives Douglas and Bella their Fast Forward to go to the final Pet Stop.

Ernesto is first to complete the race, and gets his next clue, which reads:

“Aren’t you having a blast? They had a blast here in 79 AD. Go to the ruins of Pompeii and find the “Beware of the Dog” mosaic.

The racers head back to the train station and once again all get on the same train, but this time, Hercules and Maxx get a head start when they arrive in Naples and take their marked taxis to the ruins of Pompeii.

Hercules wants to go to nearby Herculaneum and get his picture taken, but Maxx talks him into staying on course.

Somehow, the corgis sneak past the German shepherds and find the mosaic first. They get their next clue: Take the ferry from Naples to Tunis, Tunisia, and go to the marketplace, or souk.

The lemurs start doing the Move it Move it dance when they find out they’re going back to Africa, but Ibrahim and Omara calm them down by pointing to a sign that tells the story of the destruction of Pompeii.
 
The Racers arrive at the Naples ferry dock, and once again find out that they will all be traveling on the same boat. Everyone goes off to get some Italian food, except for Maxx, who begins barking excitedly at the baggage claim area for a ship that just arrived from Palermo.

When Hercules goes over to investigate, he smells something familiar, and the police dogs attack the luggage. A member of the local polizia comes over, followed by a member of the local carabinieri, the Italian military police.

Hercules and Maxx have just foiled a major drug smuggling operation! But unfortunately, they will have to go to the Naples police headquarters and help the locals some more.

The rest of the Racers board the ferry and watch sadly as it pulls away from the dock without their New York friends.
 
While all this excitement is going on in Naples, Bella, Douglas, and Alejandrito are arriving at the Pet Stop: the Ksar Ouled Soultane village near Tataouine, Tunisia, which doubled as Luke Skywalker’s home planet in the Star Wars movies.

They’re met by George Lucas who has an Arabian horse.

“Bella and Douglas, the force has been with you. You’re the first team to arrive. You’ll both receive these super digital cameras, which you can enjoy when the Amanxing Race is over. Who’s this little guy?”

The ferry arrives in Tunis and the Racers find taxis to the souk and find the clue box in front. Their instructions: Go through the market stalls and find the store that sells small statues of Arabian horses. Once they find the statue, the shopkeeper will give them their next clue.

The lemurs bounce ahead, followed by the corgis. Ernesto and Fermin take a wrong turn into a shop selling china, and give the camera a funny look. Stravinsky and Zhivago are the first to find the horse seller, and he gives them their final clue, to go to the Pet Stop in Tataouine.
 
One by one, the Racers arrive at the Ksar Ouled Soultane. Finally, a good four hours later, Hercules and Maxx arrive, escorted by the Tunisia police.They’re wearing red white and green banner sashes given in appreciation of their hard work in helping the Italian police.

“Hercules and Maxx ... you’re the last team to arrive. I’m sorry to tell you you’ve been eliminated from the Amanxing Race. But you both should be proud of yourselves.”

The police dogs turn around to leave, and see all the other Racers, who are wearing NYPD hats and applauding their friends.

WRITTEN BY BECKY BANFIELD
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER DAVE HUNTER & BELLA T. MANX
Inspired by The Amazing Race on CBS

Special Midseason episode >