Saint Petersburg: 4 Days in the Palaces of the Tsars

Departure and Arrival in Saint Petersburg

We set off while it is still the dead of night. We arrive at PARKINGO where we have booked the parking space and, extremely efficiently, they take us to Malpensa. The SWISS AIR flight includes a stopover in Zurich. The first flight is precise and on time. We arrive in Zurich even early. Unfortunately the flight to St Petersburg departs 1 hour late. Moreover, Zurich airport concentrates all its splendour in the shopping area but, as for essential services, such as seating and toilets, it is somewhat lacking.

On the plane they give us the form to fill in and present with our passport. We arrive in St Petersburg 40 min. late and moreover, a long queue awaits us at passport control. At arrivals we find our driver, arranged by Franco Rosso, with a sign with our names. Actually, we have a little difficulty spotting him, given the large number of people with signs present. Anyway we find him and he takes us to the hotel, giving us some initial tourist information in very simple English. We immediately understand that our hotel, Nevsky Grand, although it is in a splendid central position (off Nevskij Grand, between the Hermitage and the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood) is not up to much. It is classified as a 3 star but it doesn't deserve more than 2. Perhaps the third star was awarded only for the central position.

Our room, fortunately, is right in front of the Reception (so we had no problems when, inevitably, the lift broke); however we are immediately disturbed by a terrible smell of paint or other solvent as they have just done some work in the room next door and so we are forced to keep the window open all the time (night included, even though it was cold). That day, the weather in St Petersburg is overcast and so, St Petersburg, loses a lot in these weather conditions. Moreover, it is already 17:00 and here, all museums close at 17:00 (at most 18:00). That first day, therefore, we cannot visit anything and we settle for a first reconnaissance tour of the centre and go into a few souvenir shops. We immediately realise that prices, contrary to our expectations, are higher than in Italy. Even the classic Matryoshka dolls have prohibitive prices. Not to mention the food.

For dinner, a Subway saves us (a sandwich chain, present all over the world, where they make long sandwiches right in front of you with ingredients indicated by you). After dinner, we are obviously tired having woken up at 4 in the morning. We notice however that here, in the month of June, there is light until late at night (the famous Russian white nights); but we draw the curtains and sleep.

Pushkin

Towards 8:30 in the morning we set off to have breakfast. We immediately find ourselves queueing because, that awful hotel has a small breakfast room, undersized compared to the number of rooms. Moreover, the numerous group of elderly French people present, rather rude, linger at the tables chatting even when they have finished eating. Fortunately the waitress comes to our rescue and chases them away: silly old...! The buffet is nothing exceptional and then everything runs out: the milk runs out, the jam runs out, even the cups run out... and here they don't replace anything.

In short: a light breakfast and then we go in search of our guide who will accompany us on the booked excursion. I find her at the reception: a young Russian woman of about 30 speaking perfect Italian. Outside the hotel entrance we also find our Russian driver and so, all 4 of us in the car, we set off towards the palaces of the tsars. First stop is the Palace of Catherine I - The Great, in Pushkin (or Tsarskoye Selo if you prefer). Pushkin is about a 1 hour drive from St Petersburg. The palace is full of tour groups, mostly Cruise ships making a stopover. The palace from the outside is a beautiful sight, the exterior all blue, almost turquoise (like Catherine's eyes, says the guide). The interiors are richly decorated and impressive: the first rooms, all gilded in Baroque style; the last ones more sober, in Renaissance style.

Obviously, for the most part, the project of Italian Architects. Before entering each palace, we must compulsorily wear overshoes so as not to ruin the elaborate wooden floors. The rooms are splendid, however, not many furnishings remain. To visit this palace, but also all the palaces that follow, we must compulsorily put on our feet "overshoes" (pool type) so as not to ruin the splendid wooden floors. All these palaces were much "mistreated" during the second world war. The restorations are still very recent: 1980s/1990s and not all the furniture was saved. We also take a walk in the large park, where other pavilions are scattered here and there, and where there are fountains and lakes. The guide explains every detail of the rooms very well, but without boring us or going on longer than necessary.

We immediately understand, however, that she does not like wasting time and so a quick stop at the toilet and a quick pass through the palace shops. Right afterwards we move by car to Pavlovsk, the residence of Paul, son of Catherine II. This palace is different from the previous one. The rooms you visit are very many and all full of furnishings and objects. Perhaps it is less sumptuous than the previous one but, to us, it appeals more. The guide Natalia explains everything well to us and then accompanies us for a walk in the park, along the river beside the palace. Then we return to St Petersburg. It is still relatively early: it is 15:30.

We quickly eat a crepe with ham and cheese at the kiosk in front of the hotel because, our zealous guide, does not like wasting time and, besides not going to the toilet, she did not even mention a lunch break to us (and to us it seemed rude to ask for one). We pay with the Rubles we changed from dollars in one of the numerous exchange offices/Western Union present right near our Hotel and on Nevskij Prospekt (the main street of St Petersburg, with many venues and shops) Attention: here is the most precious piece of advice in this account: bring plenty of dollars and go straight to an exchange office to change them into Rubles. In fact, here, almost no one accepts credit cards (only shops of a certain level and practically no restaurants) and they don't even accept dollars (only the stallholders take any currency).

Especially if you want to eat quick food in the snack bars, you absolutely need Rubles. Attention: the exchange offices close at 20:00 – max 20:30 (and don't open before 9 in the morning). After that, to change money, you have to rely on automatic cash machines/ATMs, with instructions in Russian where, anyway, you can't understand anything. After our quick crepe, we go to visit the beautiful church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. It is a beautiful church in Russian style, with a facade all decorated and coloured, bordered by a picturesque canal. The ticket, as for all churches, is rather expensive: 320 rubles, that is 10 dollars, that is 7 euros (here you can also pay by credit card). Inside, the church is completely covered with evocative blue mosaics, depicting the main episodes of the gospel.

On the way out, following the advice given to us by the guide Natalia, before leaving us, we take a boat trip, taking one of the boats right on the canal in front of the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. On the boat there are both covered and open-air seats. Given the beautiful day, we sit outside. By boat we travel both the smaller canals and the Neva river, going around the island with the Peter and Paul Fortress. The boat experience is splendid, an unforgettable memory of the trip: the weather is beautiful, it's warm (we have short-sleeved t-shirts) and the tour is long (1 hour) and gives us a complete view of the city, reaching points too where we can't get on foot. Indeed, given the very central position of our hotel, we don't need to use the metro or other public transport. We can easily reach the places of greatest tourist interest on foot.

For dinner, we risk going hungry as we don't have enough Rubles and the exchange offices are already closed. We cannot eat cheaply at Subway or some other Self Service/Fast Food. We absolutely have to go to an Italo/Russian restaurant on Newskij (near Subway and the Montblanc shop. I'm telling you only so you can avoid it) which says it accepts payment in dollars. It is certainly not a luxury restaurant but rather a tavern in a typical style. After all we just want a simple steak. After a long wait (as if they had to prepare goodness knows what) our 2 steaks arrive. We immediately see from the menu that the prices are rather high but, the biggest surprise, comes at the till, when the odious waitress imposes on us a loan-shark exchange rate (25 rubles to a dollar, instead of the usual 30). The result: 2 steaks, 1 mineral water and 1 beer: 90 dollars (you read that right):

After this shock we go to sleep. First, however, we call home, as every evening, taking into account the time difference of 2 hours (St Petersburg 2 hours ahead of Italy). To phone, another thoroughly Russian difficulty: to avoid high mobile costs (which gets a great signal) we brought from Italy a New Columbus phone card worth 12 euros (Telecom. With 3 calls I spend almost nothing and almost all the credit remains). These cards are prepaid and the costs, from abroad, are truly low. Attention though: never use it with your mobile as your operator will charge you additional costs (I use my mobile only for SMS). Use it instead from the hotel; usually from your hotel room but here, you can't, you must compulsorily call, from the Reception desk and thus speak in front of the employees and all the people who will pass by there in that moment.

The cost however is reduced: the hotel asks only 15.

ruble per call.

Peterhof

This morning we bring breakfast forward a little and so the queue is there but it is shorter. At the buffet the same dreadful stuff as the previous morning. We quickly go to change the dollars into rubles and then we already find the guide and the driver waiting for us. We set off immediately towards the palace of Peter the Great: Peterhof, overlooking the gulf of Finland. This palace too is about a 1 hour drive from St Petersburg: however the road is more scenic and less busy. We immediately admire the splendid golden and dazzling domes of the palace. The interior is fantastic: a perfect mix between the 2 palaces visited yesterday. Here we find halls splendidly decorated but also rich in furnishings. The best, however, is yet to come and, precisely, visiting the fantastic gardens with numerous fountains, canals and water features.

You should know that, Peter the Great, in having this palace built (always with the help of Italian architects, like all the other palaces of yesterday) was inspired by Versailles. So, if you know Versailles, you can have an idea of what Peterhof is We return to St Petersburg for 13:30, having asked the guide Natalia to set off in the morning 30 minutes ahead of the schedule set by Franco Rosso. The driver, courteously, leaves us near the Hermitage where we have independently booked the tickets online. Don't do it: you'll save by getting them on the spot since there isn't much of a queue. Don't get tickets lasting 2 days (like us) because half a day will be enough for you.

As soon as we enter the museum, after leaving our jackets at the cloakroom (as required in every palace, also because otherwise it would really be too hot) we immediately go in search of the toilets (because with Natalia, in the morning, we didn't make the stop) and then we go straight to the nice Hermitage café to eat something. Here we buy a sandwich, a kind of cheese calzone and choose 2 desserts from the many available. The break is pleasant at the café tables; the prices medium/high as always here. Then we begin the visit of the Hermitage. We are mainly interested in the part of the Museum called the "Winter Palace", the official residence of all the Tsars. Unfortunately, we immediately understand that the division between the "Winter Palace" part and the Hermitage exhibition part is not clear-cut.

Anyway, we can tell you that the stunning halls of the Winter Palace are located on the second floor of the Hermitage (so the middle floor). Don't waste time, as we did, looking for them on the first or third floor where there are only picture galleries and other types of exhibitions, which interest us little). The halls are truly magnificent. Our favourite room is the "Pavilion Hall" (all white and gold with an enormous golden Peacock Clock in the centre). Tired, we leave the palace and return to the hotel to rest a little. Fortunately the solvent smell disappeared by the second day (not without us having complained in English at the Reception). Speaking of language: we can say that we got by speaking English.

Not all Russians know it: the youngest are almost all able to do so and, anyway, almost all the shopkeepers or the ticket office staff understand it and we too manage to understand them quite well. For dinner, we once again have rubles available and so we can easily go back to having a big sandwich at Subway. After dinner we visit the shops of a yellow shopping centre on Newskij but we find nothing interesting. The most beautiful and cheapest souvenirs are found in a little shop on the canal of the church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, right after the Fast food with the Pepsi signs. Unfortunately here they only accept rubles.

St Isaac's Cathedral and back home

We bring breakfast forward a little again and, this time, we immediately find a free table. At the buffet always the same things; indeed, today even the jams have run out! On the other hand I manage to find a cup to put my caffèlatte in. Our driver will come to pick us up at 12:00 to take us to the airport. We therefore have almost the whole morning to visit something. Following therefore the advice of our Mondadori Guide (always the best) and of Natalia, we decide to visit St Isaac's Cathedral. The walk to St Isaac's Square is not very long and rather pleasant as it follows a canal. The church and the ticket office (in Russian ticket office is written KACCA) open at 9:30. The price for all churches is always the same (320 rubles) and you can pay by credit card. The church is beautiful, entirely frescoed and every painting has elaborate golden borders.

Unlike the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood we are not in a church in Russian style but it is a cathedral in European style, complete with dome. We then slowly return towards the hotel making a final stop at our favourite Souvenir shop to use up the last rubles. At 11:30 we check out of the room and, outside, our driver (always the same one) is already waiting for us to take us to "Pulkovo" airport in St Petersburg. The airport is small so it is not at all difficult to find your way around. The bureaucratic procedures are fairly quick, although the checks at the Metal Detector are scrupulous. We have lunch in a place with an old America style (hamburger obviously) using up absolutely all, but all the rubles and obviously doing our maths carefully so as not to exceed.

The return is precise and punctual. On the Swiss Air plane, decent meals (better on the outward journey than on the return) and the classic Swiss chocolate is not missing as a gift. In Zurich too the stopover is quick and smooth and we arrive on time at Malpensa where we phone Parkingo to request the shuttle.

In conclusion, we can say that the experience was certainly positive. For us, enthusiasts of Castles and ancient Residences, St Petersburg is a godsend. Moreover, we always found beautiful weather, beyond our expectations. We are very tired though, as in just 4 days we tried to see as much as possible. Fortunately, the next day is Sunday and we can rest before returning to work on Monday, with the usual daily grind.

COSTS

Franco Rosso package including:

Flight, 3 hotel nights on B/b basis, transfer from the airport to Hotel and no. 2 excursions with private guide: Euro 1000.00 per person.

Excluded:

meals: About 700 rubles for lunch or dinner for 2 people – Bar or Fast Food (23 dollars, 16 euros)

Entrance to Hermitage and Churches (300/400 rubles per person equal to 10/15 dollars per person)

Boat tour: duration 1 hour, 500 rubles.

Souvenirs: E.g. Matryoshka dolls of 5 pieces 900/1000 rubles equal to 30/35 dollars – 20/25 euros).

DANI E MAX for further information: