______________________________________________________________
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS IN ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
This unique program shall explore one of the world’s most fascinating cities inside and out. With Dr. Barry Goldsmith leading the program you shall go where few people have ever been and have insight into an incredible world of beauty, art, music, deceit and betrayal.
St. Petersburg is like few other cities in the world and offers some of the highest degrees of culture, sophistication and grandeur ever known. Join Professor Goldsmith as he takes you “behind the scenes” to re-visit Russia of the Tsars.
______________________________________________________________
Sep. 01 and Sep. 02 – Days One and Two: Departure from your home city for St. Petersburg via Paris. Arrive in Paris (CDG) in mid morning and transfer to your flight to St. Petersburg with a mid afternoon arrival. Private transfer to the 5* deluxe Grand Hotel Europe in the heart of St. Petersburg. Welcome drink and canapés upon arrival. Balance of afternoon at leisure to begin to explore St. Petersburg. Walking tour of St. Petersburg’s Fifth Avenue with Prof. Goldsmith. Welcome dinner at one of the hotel’s many elegant restaurants.
Sep. 03 – Day Three: Buffet breakfast at your hotel. Today may be one of the highlights of your program with a visit to the famed Hermitage. You will be escorted not only by Prof. Goldsmith, but also by one of the directors of the museum who will take you into rooms closed to the public while they are being restored. Lunch at the Hermitage restaurant on your own – or continue further exploration of the Hermitage during the lunch hour. Continue the afternoon at the Hermitage. This afternoon will be “murder.” Visit the Church of the Resurrection where Alexander II was murdered then on to the Yusupov Palace to see where Rasputin was murdered. Dinner at your hotel’s Rossi Restaurant. After dinner an optional canal walk with those who have the inclination to see more of St. Petersburg that most tourists never get to see.
Sep. 04 – Day Four: Buffet breakfast at your hotel. Today return to the vicinity of the Hermitage to enjoy the Menshikov Palace the Museum of the Siege of Leningrad. Time to see the museum housing Rasputin’s “crown jewels.” Tour the Mariinsky Palace in St. Isaac’s Square; the most beautiful 19th-century palace built for Nicholas I’s daughter and his son-in-law – grandson of Napoleon’s Josephine. Lunch on your own. Enjoy dinner and entertainment at the hotel’s Grand Europa Restaurant – the most beautiful Art Nouveau (“Style Moderne”) restaurant in St. Petersburg.
Sep. 05 – Day Five: Buffet breakfast at your hotel. Today you will enjoy a city tour and venture to the Peter & Paul Fortress and Prison (newly restored). Tour Pavlovsk including the soon to open library and other rooms.. Then lunch on your own at the Pavlovsk Palace, the Palace of Konstantin Romanov, the last Czar’s cousin. In the afternoon, continue to the Alexander Palace, the intimate home of Alexandra and Nicholas, where you will once again go behind the scenes into special rooms closed to the public. See the newly restored Feodorovsky Church and the neo-Russian medieval gorod, which was a hospital attended to by the last Empress and her two eldest daughters during World War I. Then on to the Catherine Palace – stopping to see the newly restored Yusupov Villa. Enjoy dinner and jazz at the Tchaikovsky Restaurant. Walk with Professor Goldsmith for yet another tour of St. Petersburg’s many canals.
Sep. 06 – Day Six: Buffet breakfast at your hotel. Today travel by hydrofoil to the grandest imperial palace; Peterhoff and all its many palaces and Gardens started by Peter The Great and completed by the last Czar, Nicholas II. See Nicholas and Alexandra’s Italianate Villa as it is being reconstructed. Be among the first to see the Farm Palace, birthplace of Tatiana Romanov. Enjoy a delightful lunch on your own at “L’Orangerie.” Then drive to visit the Cottage, summer home of the last Dowager Empress, Marie. Stop at several palaces, many owned by Romanov Grand Dukes, on the return to St. Petersburg. Enjoy a panoramic city tour of St. Petersburg including Mars Field, Peter the Great’s Summer Palace & Gardens. Then enjoy a ballet performance of Swan Lake at the Russian Classical Ballet Palace or the Mussorsky Theater. Finish with a late dinner at your hotel’s elegant Noble Assembly restaurant.
Sep. 07 – Day Seven: Buffet breakfast at your hotel. Today walk “next door” for a “behind the scenes” tour of the famed Russian Museum, (with the Mikhailovsky Palace as the central building), with Dr. Goldsmith and one of the museum’s very own curators. Lunch on your own. After lunch continue with a city walking tour that includes St. Isaac’s Cathedral and a private tour of newly restored Grand Duke Alexei’s Palace. This evening’s entertainment will be filled with Russian folk dancing, music and singing at the Nikolaevsky Palace, followed by a late dinner at your hotel at the renowned Chopsticks Chinese Restaurant.
Sep. 08 – Day Eight: Buffet breakfast at your hotel. Today enjoy two special tours with Professor Goldsmith; “The Art Nouveau ("Style Moderne" in Russia) of St. Petersburg.” Take Goldsmith's "Russian Revolution Tour:” and tour the Smolny Institute, the private girl's school commandeered by Lenin on the night of the October Revolution, 1917. Lunch on your own. Then we will see the Tauride Palace – built by Catherine the Great and which Czar Nicholas II opened after the 1905 Revolution. In another area of the city, we will visit Rasputin's apartment. Enjoy a Gala Farewell dinner at your hotel, in the Caviar Bar Restaurant – and its unique “proto Art Deco” decor.
Sep. 09 – Day Nine: Early breakfast at your hotel. Private transfer to St. Petersburg Airport for your return flight to the USA via Paris.
Optional Post Tour of Paris - 3 days / 2 nights (contact us for details) Including optional tours of “White Russia Paris” with sites affiliated with the Romanovs including Mathilde Kschessinskaya’s dance studio (where Margot Fonteyn studied) and the home of the exiled Prince Felix Yusupov. Also included will be a tour of Vaux le Vicomte – the professor’s favor chateau just outside Paris.