Tour Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrival. Meeting with a guide at the airport. Transfer to the hotel. Check in.
Day 2: Grand city-tour with visit to Nikolsky Cathedral, Kazansky Cathedral, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Peter and Paul Fortress and Saviour on the Blood Church. Lunch at a restaurant. Rivers and canals boat trip. Excursion to Yusupov Palace with Rasputin exhibition. Transfer to the hotel.
Day 3: Excursion to the Hermitage. Visit to Peterhof by hydrofoil. Walk in fountains park. Excursion to Grand Palace. Transfer to the hotel.
Day 4: Free time. Evening: Transfer to the railway terminal. Departure to Pskov. Arrival to Pskov railway terminal. Transfer to hotel. Check in.
Day 5: City tour with visit to Pskov Kremlin – the cultural, historical and architectural center of Pskov. This territory was settled by pagan tribes from the 1st century. The surviving architectural ensemble includes Dovmont town – center of municipality of ancient Pskov and Trinity cathedral – the unique monument of engineering and architectural art of the 17th century that was built in ancient Moscow style. The first Trinity cathedral was founded here in the 10th century by Princess Olga –who embraced Christianity and preached Christ in Ancient Russ. Visit to Mizhorsky monastery – the ancient monument of church architecture and fresco painting of the 12th century, the center of clerical education. The monastery includes Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral.
Excursion to Pogankiny Palaty museum – the archeological museum that keeps ancient items (1st – 18th cent.) excavated in Pskov region. The largest collection of Pskov icons (15th – 18th cent.) and Russian silver is on display. Transfer to the hotel.
Day 6: Excursion to Izborsk and Pechory. The monastery of the same name was founded in the late 15th cent. Through the sweep of time and history, clever monks were able to keep the monastery in fact, without any major changes to its original form. Ten churches with beautiful domes accommodate great art treasures, including the life-sized wooden sculpture of Nicolas The Miracle worker. Departure to Pushkinskiye Gory – the memorial Pushkin museum that includes the former estates of the Gannibal-Pushkin family: Mikhailovskoye, Trigorskoye, Petrovskoye. The place is tightly connected with the poet’s life, creative work and death Transfer to a hotel. Check in.
Day 7: Excursion to Petrovskoye and Mikhailovskoye house museum. Excursion to Trigorskoye house museum and Svyatogorsky monastery – the necropolis of the Gannibal-Pushkin family and the tomb of the great Russian poet. Transfer to Pskov railway terminal, departure by train to St. Petersburg.
Day 8: Arrival to St. Petersburg. Meeting with a guide at the railway station. Excursion to Gatchina with visit to Paul I Palace and Park. Transfer to the hotel. Check in.
Day 9: Excursion to the Russian Art Museum. Walk excursion along the Arts Square, Summer Gardens and Nevsky Prospect.
Day 10: Excursion to Tsars' Village with visit to Catherine Palace and Park. Excursion to Pavlovsk with visit to Paul I Palace and Park. Transfer to the hotel.
Day 11: Departure to Veliky Novgorod by bus. Within 180 km of St.Petersburg stands the first town of Russia, full of dignity, with its magnificent churches created in the X-XI centuries, a pearl of genuine Russia – Veliky Novgorod. It was the first independent city with the republic model of government.
Arrival to Novgorod. Meeting with a guide. City-tour with visit to the Kremlin that was first time mentioned in the chronicles about 1044 – the religious, political and cultural centre of the Novgorod Land, St. Sophia Cathedral – the oldest dressed stone church of Russia, built in the Kremlin between 1045-1050. The vestry holds many beautiful silver and gold objects and some fascinating embroideries; it has a rich library of the ancient hand-written books in an upper gallery.
It is decorated with 11th and 12th C frescos, including the unique “Constantine and Elena”, and the superb iconostasis with its numerous 15th – 17th cent. icons. The Cathedral is home to Russia’s national relic –the miraculous 12th cent. Icon of Our Lady of the Sign, Icon museum – Russian icon of 11th – 19th cent. Visit to the Wooden Craft Museum – a unique reserve of Wooden Architecture “Vitaslavlitsi”. The museum’s name comes from a former village on the site which disappeared more than 100 years ago. A number of 16th – 19th cent. wooden buildings have been brought here from elsewhere in the region, giving them a second life, St. George Monastery was founded in the 12th cent., at the point where the Volkhov Iver leaves Ilmen Lake, this monastery is in a superb natural site to the south of the town. It contains fragments of several 12th cent. frescos. Transfer to a hotel. Check in.
Day 12: Check out. Departure from Novgorod to St. Petersburg airport.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
Price includes:
- visa support
- transport
- guide service
Also see tour packages in:
Europe
Russia
Archeology/History
Cultural Journey
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