Day-by-day programme of this 13-day itinerary across Moscow, the Golden Ring and St Petersburg.
Day 1 โ Arrival in Moscow
You land in Moscow and reach the centre. An easing-in evening on the floodlit Red Square, with the domes of St Basil's and the Kremlin walls: an impact that stays with you. Tomorrow you enter the monumental city. NB: check the situation on flights, visa and travel advisories in the country Info sheet before departure.
- โ๏ธ Moscow โ Aeroporto di Mosca-Sheremetyevo (SVO)
- ๐ Red Square โ Red Square in the evening is one of Europe's most powerful sights: the vast cobbled expanse closed by the crenellated Kremlin walls, Lenin's mausoleum, the GUM department store lit up like a palace and, at the end, the phantasmagoria of St Basil's onion domes, coloured like sweets. The name comes not from communism but from old Russian ('krasnaya' = beautiful). You stroll unhurried, take your first photos, let the monumental scale of it all wash over you. Dinner nearby and to bed: tomorrow you go inside the Kremlin walls.
- ๐จ Citycomfort at Kitay-Gorod โ Centro (Kitay-Gorod / Tverskaya), Mosca
Day 2 โ Monumental Moscow
The heart of Russia in a day: the domes of St Basil's, the GUM department store and the Kremlin citadel with its cathedrals and the Armoury full of tsarist treasures. Monumental Moscow, from the Orthodox Middle Ages to today's power.
- ๐ St Basil's Cathedral โ It is the very image of Russia: nine chapels gathered into one church, each with its own onion dome differing in shape and colour, built by Ivan the Terrible in 1561 to celebrate the conquest of Kazan. Legend says the tsar blinded the architects so they could never make another like it. Inside it's a maze of narrow frescoed chapels, surprisingly small compared with the exterior spectacle. You circle it to photograph from every angle, then cross the square towards the Kremlin walls, passing the GUM.
- ๐ GUM โ Facing Red Square, the GUM is the most spectacular department store in the world: three 19th-century iron-and-glass galleries on three floors, with little bridges, fountains and lights, today a temple of luxury but also a place where Muscovites come to stroll. It's worth entering just for the architecture and for the 'Soviet' ice cream from the historic kiosk, still served as in USSR days. It's also a good refuge from the cold. Refreshed, you finally enter the citadel of Russian power: the Kremlin.
- ๐ Moscow Kremlin โ The Kremlin is not a palace but a fortified city: two kilometres of crenellated red walls enclose the political heart of Russia and, surprisingly, a complex of golden-domed Orthodox cathedrals gathered around Cathedral Square, where the tsars were crowned. You visit the Dormition Cathedral, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, and above all the Armoury: a glittering treasure of crowns, thrones, imperial carriages and the famous Fabergรฉ eggs. The Armoury ticket must be booked for a time slot. On leaving, you find a cafรฉ: tomorrow cultural Moscow, from the metro to art.
Day 3 โ Cultural Moscow
A different Moscow: the metro stations that are palaces of marble and mosaic, the Russian masterpieces of the Tretyakov Gallery, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and the evening stroll along the Arbat, the pedestrian street of artists.
- ๐ฏ Ploshchad Revolyutsii โ The Moscow metro is a museum you visit for a few cents: built by Stalin as a 'palace for the people', its stations are halls of marble, granite, crystal chandeliers, gilded mosaics, stained glass and bronze statues. Don't miss Ploshchad Revolyutsii with its 76 statues (rub the dog's nose for luck, gleaming bright), Baroque Komsomolskaya, Art Deco Mayakovskaya and Novoslobodskaya with its stained glass. You ride a guided loop hopping station to station. Then you surface towards the Tretyakov Gallery, the treasure chest of Russian art.
- ๐ Tretyakov Gallery โ The Tretyakov Gallery holds the world's largest collection of Russian art: from medieval icons โ including Andrei Rublev's famous Trinity โ to the great 19th-century painters, Repin, Surikov, Levitan, with their history scenes, steppes and portraits that tell the Russian soul. It's the right place to understand the country's painting beyond the stereotype. Two hours cover the masterpieces. On leaving, you head for the white-and-gold bulk of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, on the banks of the Moskva.
- ๐ Cathedral of Christ the Saviour โ Russia's largest Orthodox church has an incredible history: built to celebrate Napoleon's defeat, it was razed by Stalin in 1931 (he wanted a Palace of the Soviets, never built; he made an open-air pool instead), and rebuilt identically in the 1990s. The golden dome is visible across half the city; inside, marble and frescoes beneath an enormous vault. From the footbridge beside it, the view of the Kremlin is splendid. Towards evening you move to the Arbat, the historic pedestrian street, for a stroll and dinner.
- ๐ฝ๏ธ Old Arbat โ The Arbat is Moscow's oldest pedestrian street, for centuries a haunt of poets, painters and musicians: today it's a bustle of caricaturists, buskers, souvenir shops and restaurants. It's the right place for your first proper Russian dinner: borscht (beetroot soup), pelmeni (dumplings), beef Stroganoff, blini with sour cream, all washed down โ for the brave โ with a shot of iced vodka or a kvas. A lively atmosphere and an honest bill. Tomorrow an early start: a trip to the Golden Ring, to the monastery of Sergiev Posad.
Day 4 โ Sergiev Posad
A trip to the start of the Golden Ring: the monastery of Sergiev Posad, the most important Orthodox lavra in Russia, with its blue star-spangled domes. Back to Moscow and a panoramic sunset from the Sparrow Hills.
- ๐ Trinity Lavra of St Sergius โ An hour and a half north of Moscow, Sergiev Posad is the Vatican of the Russian Orthodox Church: the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, founded in 1337, is the country's most venerated monastery, a UNESCO site, still home to hundreds of monks and a place of pilgrimage. Behind the white walls opens a fairy-tale ensemble: the Dormition Cathedral with blue domes spangled in golden stars, the blue-and-gold Baroque bell tower, the holy springs, the monks' chants drifting from the churches. It is the image of spiritual Russia. Reach it by suburban train (elektrichka) or on a tour. Back to Moscow in the afternoon.
- ๐ Sparrow Hills โ Back in the city, you climb the Sparrow Hills, Moscow's most loved viewpoint: from the terrace, at the foot of the Gothic-Stalinist skyscraper of the State University (one of Stalin's 'Seven Sisters'), the gaze takes in the bend of the Moskva, the Luzhniki stadium and the horizon of city towers changing colour at sunset. It's where Muscovites come to look at their city. The day ends with the metro back to the centre. Tomorrow you truly set off for the Golden Ring: Vladimir and Suzdal.
Day 5 โ Vladimir and Suzdal
The heart of the Golden Ring: a fast train to Vladimir, the ancient capital with the Golden Gate and the cathedral frescoed by Rublev, then fairy-tale Suzdal, an open-air museum of white churches and timber houses among the meadows. You sleep in Suzdal.
- โ๏ธ Moscow โ Vladimir โ Stazione di Vladimir
- ๐ Dormition Cathedral of Vladimir โ Before Moscow, Vladimir was the capital of Rus': in the 12th century it was the most powerful city, and two UNESCO jewels remain. The Dormition Cathedral, white with golden domes, holds original frescoes by Andrei Rublev, the greatest Russian icon painter; nearby, the Cathedral of St Demetrius is covered in hundreds of stone-carved reliefs. There is also the Golden Gate, the triumphal arch of 1164 that defended the city. A walk through the upper centre, above the Klyazma river, then you head for the pearl of the Ring: Suzdal.
- ๐ Suzdal Kremlin โ Suzdal is the Russia of fairy tales: a town of a few thousand people where tall buildings are banned, scattered over meadows and a river bend with over forty churches, monasteries and bell towers, and rows of timber houses with carved windows. The Suzdal Kremlin, the oldest, holds the Nativity Cathedral with blue star-spangled domes; around the town, the Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius with its carillon of bells and the open-air museum of wooden architecture. You walk slowly among the meadows, taste medovukha (the local mead). Dinner and night here, far from the world: it's the quietest evening of the trip.
- ๐จ Surikov Guest House โ Suzdal
Day 6 โ From Suzdal to Moscow
A slow morning among the churches and meadows of Suzdal, then back to Vladimir and the train to Moscow, where you sleep ahead of tomorrow's transfer to St Petersburg.
- ๐ Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius โ The last morning in Suzdal is for the fortress-monastery of St Euthymius, ringed by mighty crenellated red walls: inside, the frescoed cathedral, the museum and โ several times a day โ a short live bell concert from the tower, a sound experience worth the visit alone. You take a last wander among the stalls of crafts and cucumbers (the town's speciality), buy a painted wooden souvenir. Then back to Vladimir and the train to Moscow, where you spend the night before the great transfer north.
- ๐จ Minima Kitay-Gorod Hotel โ Centro, Mosca
Day 7 โ By train to St Petersburg
The high-speed Sapsan from Moscow to St Petersburg in four hours. An afternoon to settle in and a first stroll along Nevsky Prospekt, the city's elegant artery, to the Kazan Cathedral.
- โ๏ธ Moscow โ St Petersburg โ Stazione Moskovsky, San Pietroburgo
- ๐ Nevsky Prospekt โ St Petersburg is another world from Moscow: not monumental and Orthodox but imperial and European, built by Peter the Great in 1703 as a 'window on Europe', raised on water like a new Venice of the north. Its backbone is Nevsky Prospekt, four and a half kilometres of pastel palaces, churches, historic cafรฉs and bridges over canals. You stroll from the station towards the centre, passing the majestic Kazan Cathedral with its semicircular colonnade and the Art Nouveau bookshop Dom Knigi. A first dinner among the canals; tomorrow you enter the Hermitage.
- ๐จ Nevsky Forum Hotel โ Centro (Nevsky / Admiralteyskaya), San Pietroburgo
Day 8 โ The Hermitage
A day for the Hermitage, the tsars' museum in the Winter Palace: three million works, from the Italian masters to Rembrandt to the Impressionists, in rooms that are themselves masterpieces. An afternoon on the spectacular Palace Square.
- ๐ Hermitage Museum โ The Hermitage is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, founded by Catherine the Great, housed in the Winter Palace, the sprawling green-and-gold residence of the tsars on the Neva. They say it would take years to see it all: over three million works, from Leonardo and Raphael to Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, to a dizzying collection of Impressionists and Matisse. But the rooms themselves โ the Jordan Staircase, the Throne Room, the 1812 Gallery โ are an imperial spectacle. Book online and devote the whole morning to a selection. On leaving, Palace Square awaits.
- ๐ Palace Square โ Palace Square is one of Europe's most solemn monumental spaces: the Baroque faรงade of the Winter Palace on one side, the immense General Staff arch on the other, and at the centre the Alexander Column, a single 47-metre block of granite raised with no fixings, held only by its own weight. History was made here: the 'Bloody Sunday' of 1905 and the 1917 storming that triggered the Revolution. Today it's a stage of carriages, street artists and sunsets. Dinner in a Nevsky cafรฉ; tomorrow the city's most beautiful cathedrals.
Day 9 โ The cathedrals and the fortress
A day among the symbol monuments: the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood with its mosaics, the golden dome of St Isaac's with the view from the colonnade, and the Peter and Paul Fortress where the city was born and the tsars rest.
- ๐ Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood โ It's the only church in St Petersburg in the Russian style, and seems transplanted from Moscow: the colourful twisted onion domes rise over the Griboedov Canal like a St Basil's of the north. It was built on the exact spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 (hence the name). But the wonder is inside: 7,500 square metres of mosaics, from floor to domes, making it one of the most astonishing interiors in the world, a sky of gold and colour. You come out dazed and walk a few minutes towards the great golden dome of St Isaac's.
- ๐ St Isaac's Cathedral โ St Isaac's Cathedral is the largest in St Petersburg: a neoclassical mass with a golden dome weighing 100 kg of gold, visible across the whole city. Inside, marble, malachite, lapis lazuli and mosaics in a triumph of tsarist splendour. But the highlight is climbing the 262 steps to the colonnade that rings the dome: from up there, St Petersburg spreads out 360 degrees, with the canals, the Neva, the gilded spires and the rooftops to the gulf. A priceless view. You come down, lunch, and in the afternoon cross the Neva to where it all began.
- ๐ Peter and Paul Fortress โ The Peter and Paul Fortress, on an islet in the Neva, is the exact spot where Peter the Great founded the city in 1703: from here all of St Petersburg grew. Within the walls, the cathedral with its needle-thin golden spire (122 metres, the city's tallest) holds the tombs of almost all the Romanov tsars, from Peter to Nicholas II. At noon a cannon still fires the shot that marks the hour, a three-century tradition. From the walls, the view of the Winter Palace across the water is splendid, and in summer the little beach at the foot of the bastion fills with people. An evening along the canals; tomorrow you go to Peterhof.
Day 10 โ Peterhof
A trip to Peterhof, Peter the Great's palace on the Gulf of Finland: a gilded palace overlooking a cascade of glittering fountains that tumble down to the sea. You arrive by hydrofoil from the city, along the Neva.
- ๐ Peterhof โ Peterhof is Peter the Great's answer to Versailles, and outdoes it in spectacle: from the yellow-and-gold palace on the hill tumbles the Grand Cascade, a staircase of water with 64 fountains and 200 gilded statues, dominated by Samson tearing open the lion's jaws, from which the highest jet spurts. It all works without pumps, by gravity alone, as in the 1700s. Below, the Sea Canal draws the eye to the Gulf of Finland. In the park hide the trick fountains that soak visitors. You arrive by hydrofoil (Meteor) from the centre in 40 minutes โ the loveliest way. The fountains run from May to October. Back to the city in the evening.
Day 11 โ Pushkin and the Amber Room
A trip to Pushkin (Tsarskoye Selo), the 'tsars' village': Catherine Palace, blue and gold, holds the legendary Amber Room, rebuilt after the Nazis looted it. An afternoon among the city's palaces and canals.
- ๐ Catherine Palace โ Half an hour from the city, Tsarskoye Selo (now Pushkin) was the tsars' summer residence: Catherine Palace is a 300-metre Baroque faรงade, blue, white and gold, the work of Rastrelli. Inside, a parade of gilded halls culminates in the famous Amber Room, entirely clad in amber panels and gold leaf: the original, an 18th-century Prussian gift, was looted by the Nazis in 1941 and never found โ what you see is a perfect reconstruction unveiled in 2003. Around it, a vast park with lakes and pavilions. Book ahead: access is capped. Back to the city for an afternoon on the canals.
Day 12 โ St Petersburg on the water
A last full day: the city seen from the water on a boat tour through canals and the Neva, the sumptuous Yusupov Palace where Rasputin was killed, and a farewell evening among the bridges, perhaps at the theatre or the ballet.
- ๐ฏ St Petersburg Canals โ St Petersburg is built on a delta of islands and canals, and the best way to grasp it is from the water: a boat glides along the Moyka, the Fontanka and the Griboedov, passing under dozens of bridges โ some tiny, others adorned with gilded horses and griffins โ then opens into the great Neva, before the Winter Palace and the fortress. The pastel faรงades mirror in the water: it's the 'Venice of the North' at its loveliest. An hour that reorders everything you've seen on foot. Afterwards, a sweet stop and then the sumptuous Yusupov Palace.
- ๐ Yusupov Palace โ The Yusupov Palace, on the Moyka, was the residence of imperial Russia's richest family, and behind its sober faรงade hides fairy-tale interiors: gilded halls, a perfectly preserved private rococo theatre, silk boudoirs. But it's famous above all for a bloody event: here, on a night in December 1916, Prince Yusupov and his accomplices murdered Rasputin, the monk who dominated the tsars' court โ poisoned, shot and finally thrown into the Neva. The tour down to the cellars reconstructs the scene. A Gothic finale for the trip. In the evening, farewell to the city: an elegant dinner or, for those who wish, a ballet at the Mariinsky.
Day 13 โ Home from St Petersburg
An unhurried morning for a last coffee on the Nevsky, then a transfer to Pulkovo airport and the flight home (with a stopover). You return with golden domes and imperial palaces in your eyes.
- โ๏ธ St Petersburg โ Aeroporto di Milano Malpensa (MXP)
