you might be mistaking stockholm with bruges.

anyway, neither (i mean bruges and peter) look like venice and they're both miles away from the picturesque italian city).

i voted moscow because it looks more russian to me (and cleaner, peter is awfully dirty) but both are worth a stay.
if you want big, the kremlin is much more impressive than the ermitage. if you want little, the small english church right opposite the rossia hotel is great.

if you go to peter, peterhof is more beautiful than versailles but tsarskoe selo is boring as hell -just an opinion.

i liked vladimir and pskov a lot.