* On a visit to St. Petersburg, writer Sophie Torro visits Catherine Palace and is bewildered by its sheer size, beauty and the golden treasures that lie within the tsar’s palace.

Uglich, Russia — The aha moment arrived around teatime in this charming town along the Volga River known for its historic buildings, watchmaking and cheese. Uglich is one of Russia’s Golden Ring cities — an informal term given to a group of picturesque towns northeast of Moscow with Medieval, well-preserved architecture — and also the place of exile for Ivan the Terrible’s wife and son, Dimitri (later murdered), after the ruler died in 1584. My husband and I were ex...

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA — This is a city that doesn’t do anything by halves, when you consider that it has more than two hundred museums and, before the revolution, a thousand or so palaces.