Things to Do at Hermitage Museum

The Hermitage sprawls along the Neva River in a way that feels almost absurd when you first see it. The mint-green and white Winter Palace alone runs the length of two football fields, and that's just one of the five interconnected buildings holding the collection. Inside, your footsteps echo on parquet floors worn smooth by three centuries of visitors. The air carries that distinctive museum smell of old varnish and warm radiators, and somewhere ahead of you a Russian docent is gently scolding someone for getting too close to a Rembrandt. The scale is what gets you. Catherine the Great started collecting paintings in 1764 partly to prove Russia belonged in the European conversation, and her successors kept adding until the collection swelled to over three million objects. You won't see most of it. Even on a long day you'll cover maybe 5% of what's on display, and that's before you factor in the Hermitage Storage Facility out in Staraya Derevnya, which holds the overflow. The Jordan Staircase sets the tone the moment you arrive. White marble. Gilded everything. Ceiling frescoes that make your neck ache from looking up. From there the rooms develop in a sequence that was designed to impress foreign ambassadors, and it still works. Malachite columns from the Urals, lapis lazuli the color of a Petersburg summer sky, parquet floors inlaid with twelve different woods. The crowds can be punishing in summer when cruise ships dock and tour groups flow through the Italian galleries like water finding the path of least resistance. But you'll find pockets of calm. The Egyptian rooms in the morning, the Dutch galleries late in the afternoon, the entire fourth floor of the General Staff Building where the Impressionists live. That building, across Palace Square, is where most visitors don't bother going, which is interesting because it holds the Matisses and Picassos.

The closest metro stop is Admiralteyskaya. Purple Line 5. About a five-minute walk through Palace Square. Nevsky Prospekt works too. A longer walk, maybe fifteen minutes. But the approach down Bolshaya Morskaya gives you that classic first view of the Winter Palace through the arch of the General Staff Building. Taxis from anywhere in the city center are inexpensive by European standards. Use Yandex Go rather than hailing on the street. In summer, riverboats along the Neva drop passengers at Dvortsovaya Embankment, essentially at the front door. From Pulkovo Airport, the official taxi counter inside the terminal is the budget-friendly safe option. Agree the price before you get in.