The painter Isaac Levitan came to Plyos in 1888, looking for somewhere to escape the heat and noise of Moscow, and found a small town on a bluff above the Volga where the light did exactly what he wanted. He spent three summers here, painting the river and the hills, and produced some of his best-known landscapes, including pictures of the evening calm and the birch-lined banks. The town has never forgotten it. A museum occupies the house where he lived, and the whole place has taken on a sleepy, artistic air, with a promenade, small galleries, and cafés on the water.
Plyos itself is older, going back to the fourteenth century, when a fortress stood on the hill, and the story goes that the first walls were raised against raiders on the river. A whitewashed cathedral with a green dome crowns a mound called Cathedral Hill, and the streets below are lined with wooden and stone houses from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many with carved window frames. The Volga is wide and slow here, with a long bend and a view of wooded hills across the water, and in the evening, boats drift by on the surface. It is, honestly, a lovely place to sit and do very little.
The ride from Kostroma follows quiet roads along the river, through forests, meadows and farm villages, with some gentle bends and long views. The surface is mostly good, though some stretches show frost damage, and you should keep an eye out for livestock and cyclists. In summer, the town gets busy with day trippers from Moscow and Ivanovo, so aim for weekdays, and spring and autumn are quieter. September brings cooler air and gold light, while winter is cold and snowy.
Krasnoye-na-Volge, a similar distance on the other side, is another option.
Walk the promenade in the evening, and look across the river. You will understand why a painter stayed.