This book invites you back to childhood—to the places where the heroes of our fairy tales come from, where there are miracles, where the forest spirit roams and a mermaid sits on the branches. It’s about cities known to everyone and unexpected interesting places; about recipes with history from local people and cooks who bring Russian cuisine back to life. We’ll get lost among the three pines, bake a pie with five fillings, stop by an afternoon tea at a garden café, and pose a riddle to the mermaid. The merchants’ traditions of Kolomna and the impish things of Vladimir’s forests, the cathedrals of Perm and the kikumors of Vyatka, old monasteries and the capitals of the Golden Ring, stories of Nizhny Novgorod and the most famous cats in Russia—only part of what we’ll encounter on this journey. Listen to the book quickly: the little steamboat is already humming on Golutvin, and Kot Bayun has started his song!