Moscow Guide
Things not to miss
1 Moskva River cruise
• In summertime, river cruises afford superb views of the Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the monument to Peter the Great, some of the Stalin skyscrapers, and fortified monasteries.
2 GUM
• GUM's elegant Victorian-era arcades are now full of designer-label stores rather than the shoddy products and queues for which it was known in Soviet times. A fine place for window-shopping in its colonnades, or sipping coffee by its fountains.
3 Kolomenskoe
• The eerie Church of the Ascension (featured in Eisenstein's film Ivan the Terrible) and hulking wooden watchtowers and cabins make this former royal estate beside the Moskva River a fabulous spot, which looks quite unearthly in the winter. Folkloric and historical pageants are staged here throughout the year.
4 The Metro
• Take a ride on Moscow's showcase metro, whose stations are the most decorous in the world. Styles range from High Stalinist to ballroom glitz.
5 The Arbat
• Once the heart of bohemian Moscow, this cobbled street buzzes with souvenir sellers, buskers and photographers (who'll snap you beside a life-size Putin, Schwarzenegger or Mickey Mouse).
6 Izmaylovo Market
• A cornucopia of Soviet memorabilia, icons, paintings, wood carvings, vintage cameras and samovars, the outdoor Vernissazh (as locals call it) is Moscow's best source of souvenirs. Performing bears appear at weekends.
7 The Kremlin palaces and Armoury
• The seat of Russian power features seventeenth-century and Neoclassical interiors, and treasures ranging from Fabergé eggs to the sable-trimmed Crown of Monomakh.
8 The VVTs
• The Stalinist theme park that once extolled the achievements of the Soviet economy, with mosaic-encrusted fountains and pavilions, and two iconic monuments.
9 Tretyakov Gallery
• Its two buildings showcase nearly a thousand years of Russian art, from icons to Futurism and Socialist Realist art.
10 Red Square
• The heart of Mother Russia, where St Basil's Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum, the Kremlin walls and GUM department store stand magnificently juxtaposed.
11 Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
• This wonderful museum boasts Schliemann's discoveries from "Troy", several Rembrandts, some of Gauguin's best-loved Tahitian paintings, and works by Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and Cézanne.
12 Peter the Great monument
• A 95-metre-high, monstrously kitsch waterfront homage to the founder of the Russian navy, by Mayor Luzhkov's favourite artist, Tsereteli.
13 Novodevichie Convent and Cemetery
• A high-walled, golden-domed convent that unwanted wives or sisters of the tsars were once obliged to enter as nuns. In the adjacent cemetery, Gogol, Shostakovich, Eisenstein, Khrushchev and a host of other luminaries are buried beneath elaborate funerary sculptures.