Benaki Toy Museum

The story

Benaki Toy Museum occupies a striking late-19th-century mansion with octagonal towers, then packs its rooms with dolls in Greek folk dress, puppets from Sicily, wind-up toys, model trains, and board games from several continents. The collection stretches from antiquity into recent decades, with concise English labels and a roof terrace open to the surrounding area. Inside, the museum is orderly rather than hands-on, and the visit tends to be manageable in about an hour. Families appear often in the galleries, and the atmosphere is eased by a notably warm front-of-house team; the branch also sits outside the city center, in Paleo Faliro.