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!