Revolution and romance, domes and dachas. And if you visit St. Petersburg in the summer, you’ll get the endless daylight of the White Nights. All the more time to soak up the splendor.

Get Your Bearings
Don’t leave home without a tourist visa (Russian National Tourist Office; 212-575-3431), plenty of U.S. dollars, Anna Karenina for the flight, and a prearranged guide. Anna Zhukova knows everything from Fabergé to the city’s best secrets.

Set up camp in old-world glamour at the Hotel Astoria (39 Bolshaya Morskaya Street; +7-812-313-5757). A courtyard-facing room at the Angleterre Hotel (39 Bolshaya Morskaya Street; +7-812-313-5666), next door, is the cheaper choice.

Forget quirky dietary issues and enjoy (well, eat) Russian cuisine at Na Zdorov’e (13 Bolshoy Prospect; +7-812-232-4039). Order pelmeni (dumplings) and kvass (the apple-flavored national drink), add live folk music, and you’re in kitschy business.

Hit the Town
First stop: St. Isaac’s Cathedral (1 Isaakievskaya Square), a mosaic wonder built to hold 14,000. The Peter and Paul Fortress, on an island in the the Neva delta, is cultural one-stop shopping: cathedral, imperial burial site, working mint, and the remnants of a seriously scary prison.

Stroll Nevsky Prospect, the main drag, and stop at the The State Hermitage Museum(2 Dvortsovaya Square; +7-812-110-9079), which includes the Little Hermitage, Catherine the Great’s love shack. Equally impressive and less crowded: the Russian Museum. Pure Russian drama: the Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood, built where Czar Alexander II was assassinated.

Ready to shop? Gostiny Dvor (35 Nevsky Prospect) has been a mall since the 18th-century. They serve tea while you browse at Imperator Souvenir Boutique (3 Dekabristov Street; +7-812-312-4237).

Stop for snacks at James Cook Pub and Cafe (2 Shvedsky Lane; +7-812-312-3200), then catch a ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre (1 Teatralnaya Square; +7-812-326-4141). Have a nightcap at the romantic Noble Nest (21 Dekabristov Street; + 7-812-312-3205).

Bling On the Country
The czars lived large. Day trip out to the palaces: Peterhof (fountains and parks), Tsarkoye Selo (so baroque it’s Vegas), and Pavlosk (lavish and Italian). Recover with lunch at Podvorie (16 Filtrovskoe Highway; +7-812-470-6952), set in (no!) a faux palace.

Back in town, you’re ready for the minimalism of Restoran (Tamozhenny Lane; +7-812-327-8979). Exposed beams, white walls, and very good modern Russian cuisine — you could be in TriBeCa.

For breathtaking views of the bridges that connect the city’s 101 islands, hire a boat. Captains wait opposite the Hermitage Theatre at the Neva River and Zimniaya Kanavka canal or off the Nevsky Prospect at Fontanka River near the Anichkov Bridge. It’s cash only, and be ready to negotiate. Bring vodka (Sinopskaya is the best; don’t even think of mixing it) and salty snacks. Propose lots of toasts. You’re practically a local.