Vienna

The Romans built a frontier fort called Vindobona here on the Danube. In 1278 the Habsburg family took control, and Vienna became the seat of a dynasty that ruled much of Europe for more than six centuries. The city withstood two Ottoman sieges, in 1529 and 1683; legend says coffee arrived in Vienna with sacks left behind by the retreating army in 1683. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Vienna was the music capital of the world, home to Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Strauss. Around 1900 it was a hotbed of new ideas, from Freud's psychoanalysis to Klimt's art. After the empire collapsed in 1918, Vienna became the capital of the Republic of Austria, and today it hosts offices of the United Nations.

The Viennese coffee house is so important that UNESCO lists it as intangible cultural heritage. Order a melange, and you may sit for hours with newspapers on wooden holders. Food is rich and comforting: wiener schnitzel, tafelspitz (boiled beef), apple strudel and Sachertorte. In the hills, family-run heurigen serve young local wine with cold cuts. Winter brings Christmas markets and ball season, with hundreds of formal balls between New Year's Eve and Lent.