VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, Tour

To visit the entire Victoria and Albert Museum with its collections on four floors and dozens of large halls, even a full day won't suffice; I suggest planning your itinerary well in advance, or going back more than once, considering that just like the other national museums in London, entry is free. So whether you've entered from the metro or one of the two street entrances, grab a map right away to understand the sections and floors of the museum and orient yourself in the ongoing reordering and refurbishment of the collections.

There are several specialized sections: musical instruments, ceramics, silver, textile artifacts, 1900s design, and even a small collection of 19th century and Impressionist paintings.

The East Asian section on the ground floor that's divided between China, Japan, Korea, and the Islamic world offers one of the most important collections of ancient rugs in the world. A lot of space is dedicated to India, which was a former colony of the British Empire; don't miss the wooden musical instrument called Tipu's Tiger that depicts an English soldier being mauled; it was made at the end of the 1700s for an Indian sultan.

On the second floor you can admire the history of English furnishings from the 1500s to the 1800s, with very curious furniture and fully reconstructed rooms....