At the hermitage I am most interested in the state rooms #s 190-176 on the second floor and 381-339, 20th century with some byzantium (I think) inbetween. I get lost, however, in the Italian and Flemish sections, definitely worth seeing, before I find my way. In the end I see most of the museum I think. I saw the room where the bolsheviks assassinated the family and then held their own meeting: The small dining room. After they had done away with the last remaining royalty, they invited a congress of proletariat from all over the country to a meeting in the palace to celebrate the coup. To show their disgust for the monarchy's taste in art and luxury, they used all the ceramics and bathtubs in the palace as urinals and toilets. All the large groups were walking in one direction. A man in a corner with an easle was copying a flemish bouquet.
Most of all, I remember that in the white and rosy room the ivory �vase� doesn't hold water.