Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

One of the largest comprehensive art museums in the United States, and among the very few of its size anywhere that charges nothing for general admission.

The collection runs from ancient Egypt and South Asian sculpture to American modernism, with two standouts: an Art Nouveau and Art Deco holding widely rated the best in the country outside Paris, and the Fabergé collection — five imperial Easter eggs among them, the largest group outside Russia. A glass-fronted wing added in 2010 doubled the building and opened it onto a sculpture garden.

Practical: free entry, open late several evenings a week, parking in the garage for a few dollars. Special exhibitions are ticketed. Next door sit the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and the Science Museum of Virginia, if the weather has turned against you.