"The three Tsaritsas...understood how important it was to invite Italians and Germans to St Petersburg and build a collaboration with them," says Bartoli.

First there arrived the Tsaritsa Nana, surrounded by the wives and daughters of the aristocracy.

Behind the great sea Ocean here lies a large tsardom, and there reigns there not a Tsar but a Tsaritsa called the Tsar-Maiden.