When I was growing up in Italy, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many people started believing in an urban legend that, as it is most often the case, proved to be completely phony. The legend said that if you were to hang a CD on a piece of string from your inside rearview... Continue Reading →
In Russia Valentine's Day (День Свято́го Валенти́на - Day of Saint Valentine) is a popular celebration, in spite of being relatively recent, or maybe because it is relatively recent. Let me explain. As a rule, the concepts of Saint Valentine and Cupid only arrived in Eastern Europe and Asia in the last two decades. That was particularly... Continue Reading →
Russia can undoubtedly be a wonderfully inexpensive holiday destination (see also my previous post on the price of medicine in Russia). The country's largest cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg in particular, offer a huge choice in prices for lodging and eating. For hotels it might be sometimes less than advisable to choose the cheapest option... Continue Reading →
If you ever happen to find yourself in Murmansk in a cold day (and if you ever happen to find yourself in Murmansk, chances are it will be a cold day, with a mean daily temperature of 0,5 C - 33 F - year around and -10 C, 13.8 F, in January) a warm place... Continue Reading →
I already wrote a few post about the hero city of Smolensk and its surroundings and even one dedicated specifically to its fortified walls. This time, however, I want to focus a bit more about an aspect of Russian culture, which I had only subconsciously noticed before a sunny day in the city of Smolensk.... Continue Reading →
A well eradicated habit in Russian culture is that of rubbing bronze statues. Those, which are not meant to be rubbed are cordoned-off, but sometimes even that is not enough to deter people from rubbing with their hands the feet of religious statues in churches. Besides a general "good luck" a lot of statues apparently... Continue Reading →
Imagine you have a clothing store on a central street in a medium-sized Russian city, (about half a million people). Of course you want the maximum possible number of people to see the clothes you sell, in the hope they will like them and come to buy them from you. Your clothes range from business... Continue Reading →
Tea is the national beverage of Russia (ok, vodka, as well...) and tea is an important part of Russian culture, to the point that some Russian language expressions are closely tied to the hot drink. "Let's drink some tea", for instance, is a classic way of saying "we should talk..." or even, depending on the... Continue Reading →
In parts of Russia, unsurprisingly for those who are familiar with the climate of Siberia, for instance, temperature dropped below freezing and snow arrived already in the month of September, but, at least for the European part of the country, this has been a very mild fall. This is not a tremendously unusual situation, but... Continue Reading →
Russia Through The Lens 