I didn't want to see Maria, so I didn't want to go to Venice either, and Andrei hadn't been to Petersburg before we decided to go there for a few days first.

St. Petersburg, located in the northwest of Russia, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, at the mouth of the Neva River, is the northernmost city in the world with a population of more than one million, and is also known as the "northern capital" of Russia.

St. Petersburg was founded in 1703.

Peter the Great moved his capital to St. Petersburg in 1712, and for more than 200 years until 1918 it was the center of Russian culture, politics and economy. In 1924 it was renamed Leningrad in honor of Lenin, and in 1991 it was restored to its original name St. Petersburg.

Compared to Moscow, St. Petersburg has a royal atmosphere and is listed as the eighth most popular tourist city by UNESCO.

Andrey was stunned by the classical architecture with a very Russian flair.

I talked to him about the history of Petersburg and my impressions of the city. I told Andrei that when the First World War broke out in 1914, Russia and Germany were hostile countries, and the authorities decided to change the name of the city to Petrograd because the word "fort" in St. Petersburg was derived from the German pronunciation. Andrei listened fascinated. He asked me how I knew so much? I said you forgot, but the history of my motherland has scored five points. Andrei said he wouldn't forget that day was also our first kiss!

We talked about the trauma that World War II inflicted on the city, and the heroes of the Russian nation. The German army besieged the city for 872 days, the longest siege and counter-siege operation during World War II. The Soviet military and civilians began the difficult battle for the defense of Leningrad.

We talk about the October Revolution led by Lenin in 1917, when the cruiser Aurora fired a cannon, and a whole new era of the Soviet Union was ushered in.

We are constantly following the footsteps of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gorky and others in Petersburg.

We wander on Nevsky Prospect, where the most outstanding buildings of the 18th ~ 20th centuries are concentrated. On both sides of the street and in the adjoining squares there are many opera houses, libraries, museums, concert halls and cinemas, among others. The neighborhood is lined with numerous department stores, food spots, churches, and celebrity homes. The buildings here are still in the style of the 18th and 19th centuries, and each building is intricately carved. In addition, Nevsky Prospect is a place of tolerance for the faith, where the Orthodox Kazan Cathedral, the Protestant Church of St. Peter and Paul, the Catholic Church of St. Catherine, the Dutch Church, the Armenian Church and many others.

If you know Pushkin, there is no way you can not be fascinated by the Tsarskoye Village, which consists of two royal palaces, the Catherine Palace and the Alexander Palace; At the same time, it is also a synthesis of various garden art styles, the beauty of Baroque, the nature of classicism, the sentimentality of romanticism, and the exoticism of Chinese style, which are woven together into a complete and colorful garden architecture complex, which is a typical garden art in the world. In 1937, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Pushkin's death, Tsarskoye changed its name to Pushkin City.

The Hermitage is located on St. Petersburg's Palace Square, which was originally the imperial palace of the Russian Tsars and was part of the Hermitage State Museum in St. Petersburg after the October Revolution. Originally built between 1754 and 1762, it is one of the greatest monuments of Russian Baroque architecture of the mid-18th century.

Andrei said that the Hermitage shook him no less than the Louvre.

Andrei and I spent three days at the Winter Palace. We really can't afford to leave the artwork that fascinates us. There are about 15,000 paintings, 12,000 sculptures, and about 620,000 prints and drawings in the Winter Palace...... The exhibition route is 30 kilometers long, making it the longest gallery in the world.

Located in the forests on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, Peterhof has a simple exterior and a richly decorated interior. Many large balls, court ceremonies and other events were held here, and Peter the Great would come here every year to spend the summer during his lifetime. The summer palace includes a complex of palace gardens from the 18th and 19th centuries, and is known as the "Versailles of Russia" because of its architectural magnificence. The main representative building of the summer palace is a two-storey palace, where Peter the Great lived on the first floor and his wife Catherine I lived on the second floor.

Located in the center of St. Petersburg on the banks of the Neva Right River, the Peter Fortress is a famous ancient building in St. Petersburg.

The most striking feature of the Kazan Cathedral is that it has a colonnade in the form of a semicircle. Behind the colonnade reveals the 70-meter-high church dome. The name of the Kazan Church comes from the image of Our Lady of Kazan enshrined in the church. When Ivan's army of the Terror stormed Kazan, the icon was found in the beacon fire. Due to the constant apparitions of the statue of Our Lady of Kazan, it has become one of the most revered icons of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Bronze Horseman is an iconic sculpture of the city of St. Petersburg located on the Square of the Decembrists. Peter the Great sat on his mount, his eyes sparkling. The statue was highly praised by the great Russian poet Pushkin, who wrote his most famous narrative poem, The Bronze Horseman. We took pictures under this statue and imagined what it would be like for Pushkin to gaze at this statue.

We spent 10 days in Petersburg, and Andrey said that it was like a dream for him. He said that if the World Cup excites him, then visiting Petersburg with me will make him intoxicated. If he could, he would never want to leave here.