Day #12: St Petersburg

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Preparing for a day at the Hermitage is like preparing for expedition. Large breakfast, comfortable shoes, map in hand and mentally ready for a long day of absorbing information.

With sensible pacing we managed 6 hours and covered about 3/4 of the whole, which we were pretty pleased with, though some parts we did little more than glance through, others we spent much longer in. It is a palace, museum and art gallery all rolled into one, Some of the famous exhibits were fabulous in "real life" (the 19th-20th Century French paintings were a highlight), but some of the smaller unsung items were breathtaking (and revealing) too, like a beautiful malachite notebook, and a gold toileting set in the shape of Atlas. I couldn't believe the amount of stuff.

In order to really appreciate it I had to ignore a creeping sense of unease at the sheer greedy excess. Walking around the room housing the royal dinner services (literally hundreds of intricate silver centrepieces, gravy boats, tureens, and all manner of unnecessary opulence), or through the Gold Room (walls "papered" in embossed gold leaf), I could sympathise with the revolutionaries.

The other part of the Hermitage that we found very interesting was the section on Oriental and Mongolian art and artifacts, particularly the Mongolian armory (the first time I have ever seen weaponry designed for combat on elephants), the silk paintings, and the Tibetan buddhas, none of which I had ever seen in a Western museum). This part of the gallery was the quietest of all those we went through, and should be more heralded!

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