Bleak and beautiful, St. Petersburg captivates by demanding visitors’ full attention. The city’s architecture and residents both fight for attention. With so much detail in the ornate facades, the city’s architecture alone makes St. Petersburg worth visiting. The people I met were equally fascinating, and in more than a few cases equally beautiful. The scale of the city is astounding. The canals and formal planning of the avenues were meant to outdo other European capitals when built in  more...