Luxury Travel: St Petersburg, Russia, Photo 1 of 9

With love from Russia...

Nevsky Prospect, nine o'clock in the evening, and the sun's a bright smudge in a tie-die sky. By 10-30pm it has dipped closer to the domes and rooftops, but is not even close to setting. The late evening is as bright as an English summer's afternoon - apart from the slightly lengthening shadows and a strange milky quality to the light. At 11-30pm, the sum has gone down - but from below the horizon its rays still illuminate the golden, hypodermically sharp spire of the Admiralty. As midnight strikes, the streets are all a-bustle and the bars and restaurants have yet to close. At the Babochka café, elegant women sit wrapped in blankets distributed by the waiters, because there is by now a slight chill in the air. No one seems ready to go to sleep - certainly not the swallows that zip backwards and forwards at roof level, filling the air with their bat-like tweeting. With its...

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