Going to museums, both famous and tucked-away, is a big part of our travels.
Rather than offering a too-gigantic list, I won't count as museums any painting or sculpture galleries, churches full of art, monumental cemeteries, Roman or Greek ruins, castles or palazzi, or the open air museums that gather together old houses and fill them with artifacts of everyday life (like the ones in Reykjavik, Stockholm, Arnhem in the Netherlands, & the Weald & Downland in West Sussex).
Imperial War museum in London --- I once spent two days here & in its library because of my somewhat odd interest in the WWII British homefront.
Car museum in Torino --- Despite my husband's and my near total lack of interest in cars, we both loved this museum. There were only about two other visitors, so that was nice, but the exhibits were just wonderfully creative (like a whole kitchen and several life-size animals made out of car parts) & there were historical films with vintage footage.
Egyptian museum in Torino --- One favorite part was the 2nd floor open walkway above the main exhibits with, yes, old-fashioned GLASS cases displaying lots & lots of the same thing, like the hundreds of little clay laborers buried with people to do all the work for them in the afterlife plus even supervisors so that while dead someone doesn't even need to bother with managing workers. That made us laugh.
Vatican museum --- Our single worst travel experience by far. We thought that in early January it would be less crammed with people but instead we found that ALL of the rooms we planned to visit were closed because staff were still on vacation. To make matters worse, we were trapped in an incredibly dense and fast-moving crowd of people being herded up & down stairs and through the hallways to the Sistine Chapel. We wanted the museum!
Capitoline museum in Rome --- An underground passageway connects the two halves of the museum. Everybody just hurried through it without even glancing at the exhibit on ancient Roman lettering that lined both walls & we almost did the same. But we could see tombstones with carved inscriptions & some rather strangely had little dogs or footprints on them. We luckily had lots of time, unlike many tourists. So, we stopped to look more carefully.
We ended up reading every one of the translations of the carved epitaphs. Some were bragging (a charioteer's: "He came in second place 130 times; third place 111 times; he won 1,558,346 times"), some were funny ("I never pronounced offensive words"), many were tender, and all offered far more individual details than modern tombstones. Several were in the first person like this one:
"For the souls departed. For sweet Geminia Mater. My name was Mater, but I was never destined to become a mother. In fact, I do not deny having lived only 5 years, 7 months and 22 days. During the time that I lived, I enjoyed myself and I was always loved by everyone. In fact, I had the face of a little boy, not of a girl; as only those who generated me knew Agathe, of gentle temperament, of pleasing and noble appearance, with red hair, short on top and long behind. Now all of (you) offer me nice drinks and pray that the earth does not weigh heavily on my remains. Do not despair too much about the remains of my little (body), Faventius, who raised me more than my parents and who loved only me. In fact, I have a mother and a father who preceded me some time ago and never grieved over (my) destiny. I also have a sister by (my) mother Amoena, who is also saddened by my death. Please, everyone comfort my family, (reminding) them of the pleasant life (that I lived), reciting prayers so that (their) pain does not increase and their sadness does not exceed the limits. You who read, if you wish to know my whole name will know Geminia Agathe, which premature death stole and brought at a tender age to Tartaro. This is all, more cannot happen: this (is foreseen) for us."
Love museums!
