St. Petersburg - DAY 3 - The Hermitage

Tuesday marked the third full day in St. Petersburg and we had planned to visit the Winterpalace which houses the hermitage which is one of the largest and most important art collection in the world. Besides the very ornate and richly decorated palace itself we were able to view works by DaVinci, Michelangelo, Rafael, Matisse, Renoir, Degas, Gaugin, etc... The sheer size and beauty of the palace itself was mindboggling. Many russian Zsars had called the winterpalace home, which had been built by largely Italian architects, yet had been constantly changed and expanded. A fire destroyed it almost completely. It was rebuilt for many years.

The weather that day was amazingly sunny and bright. It allowed us to view the art collections and treasures with sunlight streaming through the large windows!

St. Petersburg - DAY 2 - Walk around town

The day after the wedding we met with Carlo's family for a walking tour around the center of St. Petersburg and its many churches and historic buildings. Only the weather could have been a bit warmer...but besides the weather there was nothing that could have spoiled this day! What a wonderful city! Especially at night, the main drag (Nevskjy Prospekt) is wonderfully lit up with countless lights on each building.
That night everybody met at an Italian restaurant where we celbrated Carlo's last evening with the family, since he had to catch a flight back to Munich very early the next morning.

St. Petersburg, Russia - DAY 1 - The Wedding

The wedding of Carlo's brother, Luciano, took us all the way to St. Petersburg, Russia last weekend!!! We didn't know what to expect from the city, its people and the weather... We were positively surprised on all accounts!!!

First I would like to post some pictures and will then get around to describing our stay in more detail....

So, here you go:

DAY 1 - After the wedding: Limo-ride around town!

After the wedding, both families piled back into the white stretch limousine and we took a tour around St. Petersburg and it's most famous sights for newlyweds to be photographed. It was a loud & happy ride with lots of singing and laughing (probably due to the countless bottles of "Champansky" we proceded to consume).
Carlo and I jumped out with the newlyweds and took our own pictures at various sights. It was C-O-L-D outside, yet we somehow couldn't stay in the Limo.... It was an amazing time with the winter sun illuminating the various golden cupolas of the nearby churches. The river Newa, frozen and still, looked like it had been sprinkled with giant coco-rasps, which were in reality sheets of ice that had piled on top of each other in many places. What a sight!