Anna is  a most personable and engaging person to spend time with, and she knows her stuff extremely well.   The tour I had with her was tailored to my interests, which she had discussed with me in advance; and what I got was no theme-park version of Pskov - she is a true ambassador for the place - its history, its natural beauty and its deep and rich culture.  Anna introduced me to local experts who could take me further into specific interests I had, and she translated when they had little or no English.  Not only did I learn a great deal about what I was hoping to find out about, but as the day wore on, I learned far more than I'd started out having in mind.  Whatever came up she opened up further to me.    So Anna opened doors for me, and we packed into one day more than I could have done on my own in a week - if ever.   She is an active member of her community, too, so that she speaks with passion and conviction about cultural matters in a way that left me with the sense of having spent a day seeing the inside of the place - not just seeing sites of interest to a tourist, but gaining a sense of how it is and has been for those living in and around Pskov.   This was a rich and thought-provoking experience, a glimpse inside another world, and if I can get back to Pskov I will certainly seek out Anna to show me around more of this fascinating place.  Having had an experience of being shown around like that, it seems crazy now to go all that way and then just blunder about in your own almost total ignorance.   Anna is a wonderful investment - I'd say just about indispensable - for a person wanting to discover this wonderful and remote part of the world.