Inside Russia

Wednesday, 19th September 2007

Churchill described Russia as a ‘riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’.

The Hermitage is huge, but a good guide will help you make the most of a visit, as it’s worth visiting gems like the Peacock Clock, the Malachite Room, Alexander II’s study and the Treasure Gallery, including Anna Ioannovna’s sumptuous 48-piece toilet set. Of all palaces in St Petersburg, the Yusupov Palace, home to Tsar Nicholas and his wife Alexandra until 1917, is the most intriguing, but only with the right guide can you get into the Buffet Room. It was here the royal family watched Rachmaninoff play and Pavlova dance, and there’s a secret staircase to the basement, where Felix Yusupov killed the tsarina’s mystical adviser, Rasputin.

St Petersburg is incomplete without a trip to the glamorous Mariinsky Theatre where £250 buys a backstage tour to watch the company rehearsing, ogle the glorious sets and speak to a ballerina. If you’re there in March, it’s also worth catching part of the annual ballet festival.

Of all these exclusive backstage tours, however, one of the most thrilling is also the cheapest. Outside the city is St Catherine’s Palace, stripped by the Nazis but now lavishly restored, including the 18th-century Amber Chamber, decorated with gold leaf, mirrors and over six tons of amber. A guide can take you to the workshop where craftsmen have spent 25 years replicating this treasure, sometimes described as the eighth wonder of the world. The detail and craftsmanship that has gone into recreating these highly intricate amber panels is extraordinary, an effort that you cannot help feeling would only occur in a country as bold and strange as Russia. And for just £20, this is a bargain tour, although very difficult to arrange, proving, once more, that it’s not what you know but who you know that gets you what you want in life.

Clover Stroud travelled with Russia Specialists Exeter International 0208 956 2756 www.exeterinternational.com and stayed at the Ararat Park Hyatt in Moscow and Rocco Forte’s Hotel Astoria in St Petersburg.