Our first experimental tours in February and March 2007 and 2008, offering participants 5 days in the Hermitage were very successful and our travel partner, Karine Hagen, has organized several further departures the winter of 2008-09. The content of each tour will be broadly similar to last winter's programme: we open the museum to our privileged guests on Monday (when the museum is closed to the public), and use this opportunity to view the highlights of the museum without the crowds, such as the famous Impressionist and modern paintings from the Shchukin and Morosov collections. For each subsequent day of the week, we spend mornings in the museum, visiting a different department each day, balanced by city sightseeing St Petersburg in the afternoon. There are also visits to the new state of the art Hermitage storage facility at Staraya Derevnya -open storage, which includes the collection of imperial carriages and embroidered tents which are too bulky to show in the Winter Palace.

To date, we have had five groups from the UK and three groups from the US experience this privileged access visit to our museum, and are delighted to say that consensus amongst all is that it is the experience of a lifetime for those interested in the fine arts.

For the 2008/2009 season we are offering the following dates:
UK departures: October 25th, November 22nd, December 6th, January 3rd, January 31st, February 28th
US departures: October 11th, November 8th, December 13th, January 10th, February 14th, March 14th, April 11th

For details, please see the day by day programme below.
For bookings please contact julia@hermitagefriends.org

PLEASE WRITE AND TELL US WHAT ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE!

Requests for special tours should be emailed to info@hermitagefriends.org

From England it is easy to drop in on the Amsterdam Hermitage, which holds two exhibitions a year. We are thinking of running regular weekend breaks in Amsterdam, centred on a visit to the Hermitage exhibition. Please write to: info@hermitagefriends.org if you would like to come on the special Amsterdam visits.

THE GLORIES OF THE HERMITAGE The programme of our eight day tour is as follows: DAY 1, SATURDAY Arrival in St. Petersburg. Transfer to the hotel Kempinski. Afternoon at leisure to relax and prepare for the week to come. DAY 2, SUNDAY Morning and early afternoon at leisure to explore St Petersburg. Late afternoon we meet for welcome cocktails and our introductory lecture on the history of the Hermitage, by a museum historian. Following this we are escorted to the hidden palace of Peter the Great, a little known part of the Hermitage complex, where Peter spent the last years of his life. This palace was used as the foundation upon which Quarenghi ultimately built the Hermitage Theater, and is a fascinating insight into Peter's life and the earliest stage of the history of our museum. Dinner is at our hotel restaurant Bellevue, with spectacular views of the museum. DAY 3, MONDAY The Hermitage is closed to visitors on Mondays so the maximum use will be made of the opportunity to see the most popular galleries without crowds - including, on this day only, a return to the galleries after lunch. The visit begins with a survey of the museum as a palace, examining the 'Peter the Great memorial Throne Room', the Armorial Hall, the main Throne Room and 1812 Gallery. We pass through the Pavilion Hall and see the famous 'Peacock Clock' made by James Cox of London. Continued by a study of the Italian galleries, including some of the most famous pieces by Leonardo da Vinci and Titian. Passing through the breathtaking Raphael Loggia which Catherine the Great had copied from the Vatican, we look at the two Raphaels, study Michelangelo's 'Crouching Boy' and pass through the Skylight Galleries, making our way to lunch in the staff canteen (off limits to the public). After lunch we continue on to the world renowned Hermitage Impressionists and Post-Impressionists collection, housed in rooms formerly used by the maids of honour. We spend the rest of the afternoon enjoying these pieces, without the crowds they attract during regular museum open hours. Lunch in the Hermitage canteen. There will be a short St. Petersburg by night tour en route to tonight's dinner at restaurant Restoran. DAY 4, TUESDAY This morning we will visit the remarkable Hidden Treasures exhibition, continuing on to the Romanov portrait gallery, and Malachite Room created by Nicholas I for his wife and the reconstructed family rooms. After a break for coffee in the museum cafe, we see the highlights of the Egyptian collection en route to the spectacular Treasury II containing Peter the Great's collection of Siberian gold dating back to 5th century BC but unearthed by 17th and 18th century tomb robbers. We depart the museum for the day, and juxtapose the glories of the Hermitage with a visit to a communal apartment, where you will have a chance to meet ordinary Russians and have tea with typical Russian pirogi. Afterwards, we continue on to the Peter and Paul Fortress, the birthplace of the city, and Stone Island, where Russian nobility had their dachas/summer homes, and where today the new Russian elite live. Lunch at a communal flat. Tonight's dinner is at restaurant Backstage, located next to the Mariinsky Theater. This is a favourite haunt of Maestro Gergiev, conductor of the Mariinsky. DAY 5, WEDNESDAY This is the day for Treasury I, one of the great highlights of the museum, combining glitter and art history, starting with Greek and Scythian gold and including a spectrum of the diplomatic gifts received by the Tsars' courts over the years. After a pause for coffee we return to the great Old Master paintings and sculpture collection, inspect the famous collection of 25 works by Rembrandt, followed by the Dutch "little masters", Rubens, Van Dyck and Snyders and return past the parade staircase of the New Hermitage to the gallery of Canova sculpture. We leave the museum to have lunch at a popular local restaurant, and continue on in the afternoon with a bus tour of Cathedrals, Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Nicholas, Smolny and St. Isaac's. Lunch at Russian Kitsch. Tonight's dinner is at the Polovtsev Mansion, a typical merchant's manor with opulent entertainment rooms which now serve as venues for various special dinner functions. DAY 6, THURSDAY This morning we drive to the Hermitage's new storage facility, opened in 2003, on the edge of the city at Staraya Derevnya. We have lunch in their canteen and see how the collection is stored - including the marvelous collection of State carriages and an embroidered tent given to Catherine the Great by the Sultan of Turkey. This afternoon is free to explore the museum on your own, with our suggestions of other galleries which also may be of interest. Lunch in the Storage Facility canteen. Our farewell to the Hermitage dinner is at the Old Customs House, located in the old customs house, and widely regarded as the best restaurant in St. Petersburg. DAY 7, FRIDAY This morning there is an excursion to spectacular Catherine's Palace, the summer residence of many of the Tsars, located in the village of Tsarskoe Tselo/Pushkin. Afternoon is free to return to the museum galleries, or take a look at the General Staff quarters on the facing side of Palace Square, future home of the Hermitage's 20/21 project, which is the museum's current initiative to expand its modern art collection. DAY 8, SATURDAY Morning at leisure. Transfer to the airport for return flight. PROGRAMME NOTES: 1. Due to the nature of this programme, group sizes are limited to ten guests. 2. The programme lends itself particularly well to the winter months, when the city of St Petersburg and the Hermitage Museum are less crowded with tourists, and perhaps at its most serene and beautiful. 3. There may be unforeseeable closures of some of the museum exhibits, which may slightly alter our programme. Venues for lunches and dinners may also change, but the quality and breadth of exposure will remain the same. 4. For those interested in attending a Mariinsky (Kirov) performance, either ballet or opera, or the St Petersburg Philharmonic Society concert, we will arrange this upon arrival in St Petersburg, when we are certain of the playbill and repertoire for the week. Hermitage Friends Club membership privileges Your participation in the "Glories of the Hermitage" programme registers you as a member of the international Hermitage Friends Club, entitling you to: - quarterly issues of the Hermitage magazine; - free entrance to all the Hermitage locations in St. Petersburg, including the Winter Palace, the General Staff Building, the Menshikov Palace and the Museum of Porcelain at the Lomonosov Factory and the Hermitage Open Storage facility; - free entrance to all the Hermitage exhibitions spaces worldwide (including the Hermitage Amsterdam) - 20% discount at all shops in the State Hermitage Museum, 10% discount on all internet purchases from the Hermitage e-shop.