Rubens in Valencia: the free exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts

The exhibition runs until 3 October and it costs nothing, which is the first thing worth saying. València's Museum of Fine Arts is permanently free to enter, and that includes its temporary shows. It is one of the few places in the city where you can go in for twenty minutes, look at one room and leave without feeling you wasted a ticket.

What the show is about

The angle is not a standard retrospective. It looks at how Peter Paul Rubens's talent was formed, meaning his training and how he arrived at the way he painted. Rubens is one of the most influential painters of the European Baroque, and a show about his apprenticeship years reads differently from a parade of finished masterpieces. Which specific works are on display, the opening hours and the weekly closing day are on the museum's official page. Most Spanish museums close one day a week, usually at the start of it.

Where it is and how to reach it

The museum is at Carrer de Sant Pius V 9, on the far bank of the old Turia riverbed from the old town. You walk across at the Torres de Serranos or by the Trinidad bridge, five to ten minutes from the Cathedral. The riverbed itself is now a linear park, so the walk is under trees rather than beside traffic. Directly behind the museum are the Jardins del Real, the city's big park.

Nearby, and other free options

A short walk away are the Jardines de Monforte, a small enclosed neoclassical garden almost nobody finds by accident. If free culture is your angle, see València's free museums, of which there are more than visitors expect, and the best museums for what to prioritise. On a very hot afternoon this is the corner of the city to retreat into.