Crimea - Ukraine - page 359

Chekhov House-Museum MUSEUM
( www.chekhov.com.ua ; vul Kirova 112; adult/child & student 40/20uah; 10am-5pm, last entry
4.30pm Tue-Sun Jun-Sep, Wed-Sun Sep-May) With many of Yalta's attractions a short distance
away, the Chekhov House-Museum is the only must-see in town. It's sort of The Cherry
Orchard incarnate. Not only did Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) pen that classic play here,
but the lush garden would also appeal to the most horticulturally challenged audience.
A long-term tuberculosis sufferer, the great Russian dramatist spent much of his last
five years in Yalta. He designed the white dacha and garden himself, and when he wasn't
producing plays like Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, he was a legendary host and
bon vivant , welcoming the Russian singer Feodor Chaliapin, composer Rachmaninov,
and writers Maxim Gorky and Leo Tolstoy.
After the exhibition at the entrance, you head down the path to the dacha, where all
nine rooms are pretty much as Chekhov left them upon his departure from Yalta for Ger-
many in May 1904. Explanation sheets are available in several languages.
Take marshrutka 6 from Veshchevoy Rynok bus station or marshrutka 8 from the
Spartak Cinema bus station to the Dom-Muzey Chekhova stop. It takes 15 to 20 minutes
to walk from the Spartak Cinema.
Lenin's Embankment PROMENADE
OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP
Everyone's favourite pastime in Yalta is walking up and down the seafront nab Lenina
and the pedestrian zone along the Uchan-su River , where you'll find a small History
Museum OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP (Pushkinskaya 5A; admission 15uah; 10am-5pm
Wed-Sun) and a Catholic church OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP (vul Pushkinskaya 25) . A
popular attraction here is a flimsy plastic-bucket-style chairlift OFFLINE MAP
GOOGLE MAP (vul Kirova, behind nab Lenina 17; return trip 20uah; 11am-5pm Apr-Sep, to
11pm Jul & Aug; cable car) that swings above the rooftops to the Darsan hill. To see old
dachas , venture into the quiet neighbourhood along vul Botkinskaya and vul Chekhova.
Massandra Winery WINERY
(vul Vinodela Yegorova 9; tours with/without wine tasting 160/100uah; five tours daily) Mem-
oirists claim that Tsar Nicholas II would always keep a flask of Massandra port hidden in
his high boot during his daily Sunny path walks, while his wife sipped the very same
drink listening to Rasputin's prophesies. The imperial court's winery is now open to vis-
itors. On a mandatory Russian-language tour (leaving every two hours from 11am to
7pm), you get to see the tsar's wine cellars, which contain over a million dust-covered
bottles, including a 1775 Spanish Jerez de la Frontera claimed to be the oldest preserved