The Neva River is an essential part of St. Petersburg's world-famous charm. Many generations of locals and visitors to the city have been completely enraptured by all-night walks along the Neva during the so-called White Nights. Very few things can be more romantic than strolling along the Neva's granite-clad embankments and admiring open bridges, marvelous architecture and ships passing by.

Since the very first days of the city the Neva was meant to be the "main street of the city". Throughout most of the 18th century there were no bridges across the river and people were ferried from one bank to the other, just the way Peter the Great intended when he founded his "Venice of the North" and "Paradise".

The Neva river is only 46 1/4 miles long, flowing from the Lake Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland, in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea. Before joining the Baltic, the Neva splits into several branches forming a delta, where downtown St. Petersburg is located. On average the river is 1300-2000 feet wide, but near the Peter and Paul fortress and the Hermitage it exceeds 2600 feet. The river is covered with ice between mid-December and the first quarter of April and during this period there's no navigation on the river. But, whatever the season, the Neva River brings extra beauty to the Winter Palace and Hermitage, the Admiralty, the Peter and Paul fortress, the Summer Gardens and other major landmarks that stand on its banks...

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