Early on a June morning the Neva runs wide and almost silent, with pale light on the granite embankments and hardly a soul on Palace Square. From the tip of Vasilyevsky Island the sky opens in every direction, and the gold spire of the Peter and Paul Fortress looks small against all that water.
Away from the river the city grows quieter still, in leafy courtyards, along the Fontanka and on the lawns of New Holland, an old shipyard island turned park. Summers are mild and damp, and winters are long, cold and short on daylight. A Local Friend may share a favorite bench by the water and the story of why it matters to them.
