21 Mar 2006

In search of the lost golden age

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/3397751c-b837-11da-bfc5-0000779e2340.html

grand_staircase_great_catherine_palace_small.jpgBy Clement Crisp [Financial Times, 20 March 2006]

It is still very cold in St Petersburg, but at the start of the Mariinsky’s Ballet Festival the sun was brilliantly reflected on snow and on the amber and almond-green of those noble façades, and at Tsarskoe Selo the sky matched the vivid blue of Catherine’s palace.