Vienna

Vienna was for six centuries the capital of the Habsburg Empire — a domain that stretched from Spain to Hungary. That history deposited onto this relatively compact city an almost absurd density of imperial palaces, world-class museums, concert halls, and coffee houses. The city's Ringstrasse, built on Emperor Franz Joseph's orders in the 1860s, is a grand boulevard lined with neo-Gothic, neo-Renaissance, and neo-Baroque institutions — the Opera, the Natural History Museum, the Kunsthistorisches, and the Parliament — all built within fifteen years.

Vienna's coffee house culture is UNESCO-listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage — and rightly so. The Viennese Kaffeehaus is not merely a place to drink coffee; it is a social institution where you pay for a seat, a newspaper rack, unlimited water, and the right to sit for three hours without being hurried. Café Central (where Lenin, Freud, and Trotsky were regulars), Café Sacher (attached to the hotel and birthplace of the Sachertorte), and Café Landtmann (the city's oldest, frequented by Sigmund Freud) are the grand ones; dozens of smaller, atmospheric alternatives fill the first district.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM) houses one of the world's greatest art collections — Bruegel, Vermeer, Raphael, Titian, Velázquez — and its imperial ceilings are themselves a work of art. The Belvedere Upper Palace holds Klimt's The Kiss, possibly the most reproduced painting in Austria, alongside Schiele and Kokoschka. The Leopold Museum holds the world's largest Egon Schiele collection. Vienna has more museums per capita than almost any other city on Earth.

In December, Vienna's Christmas markets transform every major square and palace courtyard into a glowing village of wooden stalls selling Glühwein, roasted chestnuts, and handicrafts. The Christkindlmarkt on Rathausplatz, Vienna's main market, dates to 1298 — making it one of the world's oldest. The Schönbrunn Palace market, the Belvedere market, and the Karlsplatz market each have a different character; budget two evenings to experience more than one.