The white nights of Saint Petersburg. A trip to the most glamorous city of Russia
Do not make the mistake of visiting St. Petersburg in the winter ...
If the great charm of Moscow is mainly due to the cold and snow, St. Petersburg really live only during the white nights .. And, after that the water of the canals began to melt and flow slowly through the city.
Awakening from winter and the beginning of the new season are celebrated in person by nature .. giving all the many more hours of light .. but not a normal light .. pinkish-white atmosphere that has all the charm of darkness.
How not to recall the famous characters Doestoievskij? They also seem to move through these days without sun, like the shadows that are reflected on Nieva.
Because the white nights are nothing but a dream, the illusion that he is, from time to time, checking the sun.
Happened in this dream city almost by chance, taking advantage of an amazing flight + hotel deals he has given us a margin of barely enough time to get the visa .. And now Russia has suffered .. so close to Europe but so different. Actually I think that May was too early to witness this phenomenon, but when we realized that the dark 'true' never came, we had a pleasant surprise that made our holiday even more beautiful.
The great capital of the czars, is still present in the square of the Winter Palace, which opens to surprise with its great extension, the profile of the building is aware of her own beauty reflected on the waters of the river, inside, one of the most huge concentrations of art masterpieces in the world ... the Hermitage.
The night does not seem to get anything, and we continue our walk along the Nevski Prospekt, the largest and most famous city artery, which crosses all the most beautiful sights of the city to reach the rostral column .. from here you can see the golden spire of the church of St. Peter and Paul, enclosed by the walls of the fortress.
Sometimes it's really hard to move around in this big maze of old buildings, the subway is awkward because it does not cover the route from downtown to our hotel and the taxi .. prohibitive prices; VCOs decide to travel all the distances on foot, with a little 'sacrifice, but rewarded by the beauty of everything around us.
Along the way we meet dozens of stores "spin doctors" in the Soviet style, which sell from shoes to meat sliced at the time, in a space very limited .. many small stores alike, overloaded virtually everything and that very often seem to disappear from the road, because located in basements barely visible. It 'a little' hard to be understood if you do not know the Russian .. and abandon ourselves to extravagant attempts to contact to buy our dinner takeaway. They must have laughed like crazy when we went out .. patience .. be used to these scenes bizarre.
We find that the cracks are better than salted Russian French .. and soups .. despite having extraordinarily bright colors (like bright red) are healthy and tasty.
Surrounded by this perpetual sunset, the city never ceases to amaze us, we meet the magnificent dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the colorful Church of the Savior on Blood, the columns of the Admiralty and city parks besieged by locals, walking calmly, eating a skewer of fruit in syrup or one of our ice cream.
You lose the sense of passing time, until the night comes true indeed, and although for a few hours, draw a line between the days that pass in this continuous shade made of light.
The next morning, we immerse ourselves in the extraordinary Hermitage collection, no one knows for sure whether to stun the eye of the visitors are the great works of art or decorative richness of the salons, but it is one of the most comprehensive museums and most beautiful in the world.
Since we are not yet tired of the extraordinary royal residences, we go to Tzarskoie Selo, the royal palace of Catherine II, to be able to see with our own eyes the magnificent Amber Room and the Feast Hall.
But we could not miss a visit to another famous building! To Peterhof, mainly because it was the day of reopening of the fountains, gilded splendor of the true and only mighty palace.
And we're back to the reality of the city, and a new white night waiting for us at St. Petersburg ...