About Austria
Vienna's coffee houses still serve melange the way they did under Franz Joseph, and that pace bleeds into the rest of the country. Salzburg fits a baroque old town between two hills, Innsbruck pins ski lifts straight onto its city tram lines, and Graz quietly runs Austria's most adventurous food scene.
Outside the cities, the Alps take over. Summer means alpine huts on the Schladming-Dachstein traverses; winter means Arlberg powder and Christmas markets in every village square. Stop somewhere small in the Wachau, order a Grüner Veltliner with an apricot dumpling, and you'll understand the appeal.