In the last two decades, viruses have been used as model systems to study evolution in short periods of time. Due to their characteristics, virus adapt rapidly to changing conditions, thus allowing the quantification of several evolutionary features under controlled laboratory conditions. Here we review the basic biology of viruses and describe in detail a number of experiments performed with RNA viruses. Particular emphasis is devoted to the interpretation of the experiments and to the involved phenomenology. This analysis sometimes represents the basis to formulate simple evolutionary models that aim at describing the observed dynamics. In other cases, theoretical results have prompted the realization of related experiments, as we discuss. Concepts as fitness loss and fitness recovery, the error threshold, increased mutagenesis, viral sex, or viral competition and interference, are discussed in an empirical framework and from the associated theoretical point of view.