Friday Faves - Museums

I'm starting an ongoing series of randomness on my blog. Each Friday I am going to post about my favorite things in a particular category. The categories are totally random. If you want to know about my favorite _________ (fill in whatever your heart desires), let me know and I'll put it on my list of 'Faves' to post about. I would also love to see comments below with your favorites on that day's topic.

The inaugural Friday Faves is all about my favorite museums. Definitely a difficult decision, but here are those that are, in my opinion, the crème de la crème.

1. The Musée d'Orsay in Paris. LOVE it. Impressionism, photography, furniture, sculpture... it's just amazing. It's converted from an old train station, so the building itself it really beautiful as well. Bonus: it's not so huge that you can't ever get through it. It's completely doable.

2. The Bode Museum in Berlin. I just remember it being so full of light, and the way they displayed their pieces was just breathtaking--the different works of art seemed to interact with each other in a way that doesn't happen in other museums. (This is actually one of the things they are known for, and was apparently quite the revolutionary way of displaying art when they did it.)

3. The Borghese Gallery and Museum in Rome. They had really beautiful works displayed and the grounds were really nice. However, there is a 2-hour time limit (not enough), and it isn't extremely large as far as buildings go, so it did feel a bit crowded when people stopped for too long to look at something (and touch it!!! I about slapped these teenagers that were looking at a statue at the same time as my family, and they just reached out and rubbed it like it was a good luck charm. Seriously, people. Have some respect--if not for the art itself, then for the fact that it's someone else's property.).

Runners-up:

The Pergamon in Berlin. I LOVE the Ishtar gate. What incredible color.

The Louvre in Paris. Enormous and exhausting, yes... but truly worth it (time and again). Maybe if I ever move there I'll get to see the entire thing once and for all.

The Egyptian Museum of Berlin. GREAT pieces here. I was just too exhausted to linger...

Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Wish we would have had more time there.

National Gallery in London. Probably rivals the Borghese for the number three spot, to be honest.