* Arbat is not only the most famous pedestrian street in Moscow. It is also a whirlpool of old Moscow alleys, playgrounds and doorways. There are traces of Old Moscow life at every step, combining, according to Bulat Okudzhava, "refinement, rigor, laziness, benevolence, hospitality and dignity." Where did Vasily Polenov paint his famous painting "Moscow Courtyard", and Alexander Pushkin settled down with his young wife? Where did the symbolist poet Andrei Bely live, and in which house did composer Alexander Scriabin experiment with sound and light? In which alley did the famous constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov build a unique house for himself?.. These and other Arbat mysteries are in the first part of the tour.