Derybasivska is the spine of central Odessa — a broad, chestnut-shaded pedestrian street running through the heart of the old city. The facades lining it range from 19th-century baroque mansions to Soviet-era apartment blocks, and the street level is a procession of cafes, ice cream stalls, souvenir vendors, and the occasional musician. It connects the City Garden to the main shopping district and is the natural place to end up in the evening.
The Odessa Passage — an elegant covered arcade with a hotel above — opens off Derybasivska and is worth stepping into for its ornate ironwork and the slightly melancholy grandeur of a 19th-century shopping gallery that has outlived several empires. In the evenings, the street fills up with Odessans who have nowhere particular to go, which is precisely the point.