The palace itself is amazing, it has over 1000 rooms, each one ornately decorated and is located right on the Neva River. It's been said that if you spent 1 minute looking at every major piece of art in the museum it would take more than 9 months to see everything. We spent just over 2 hours there. Unfortunately we were there during the high season and it seemed like every tourist in St. Petersburg was inside the museum at the same time. The heat was stifling and we had a hard time seeing anything or even getting around. If you stopped to look at something you had to be careful because you could easily lose the guide. Not only were we cranky but our 11 month old baby was being extra cranky which certainly didn't help. Between the cranky baby and the crowds it was very difficult to take a lot of pictures.

We found out that the people who visited the Hermitage the following day had a completely different experience. It was closed that day to the general public and only open to specially arranged tours so for them it was like the museum was open for their private viewing. Grrr...