St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg has a different atmosphere from the Russian capital city of Moscow. Peter the Great built St. Petersburg on a swamp in 1703, importing European architects and artisans to contribute to the very Northern European scenery that still exists today. St. Petersburg recalls the days of the Russian czars and all the wealth and opulence of the Russian empire, but with a relaxed pace and feel; St. Petersburg natives also consider themselves to be more refined and graceful than their Moscow counterparts. You can spend days wandering along the embankments of the canals imagining what life might have been like here during Catherine the Great’s reign, or when Pushkin was romancing young aristocratic women of the court.