To continue our evening & weekend excursions to the gems of Saint Petersburg in Russia, we finally made our way over to the famous Hermitage Museum. With so many pictures to show & notes worth mentioning about them, I felt that the visit deserved its own post:

• I spent over 5 hours inside ONLY the main building (housing the Winter Palace). There are 5 other buildings … I’m really hoping to visit the others before I leave
• There is so much gold EVERYWHERE with grandiose rooms with ornate architecture & design. I would imagine that the building had to be royal & impressive since it was initially founded by the Catherine The Great when she got a collection of art from a Belgium merchant in the 1700’s . However, did it have to be this extravagant?
• As one of the biggest museums in the world, it currently hosts over 3 MILLION artwork. Although I was more awe-stricken by the interior of the building itself to truly enjoy the artwork it housed, I was super excited to see the pieces that showed the life & history of Russia (and Siberia).
• I made a few Chinese tourists really mad by taking my time in front of the famous Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting “The Litta Madonna”. Apparently, I was getting in their way of taking a picture of it and quickly moving on … I really wanted to understand & appreciate his talent by closely analyzing the painting with my OWN eyes 🙂