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Vienna was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the scale of that history is impossible to ignore. Schonbrunn Palace has 1,441 rooms. The Hofburg complex sprawls across 240,000 square meters. The Ringstrasse -- the grand boulevard built in the 1860s on the orders of Emperor Franz Joseph I -- contains the State Opera, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Parliament, the Rathaus, and the Burgtheater in a single looping avenue that was designed as the self-portrait of an empire. The empire is gone but the Ringstrasse remains, still performing the function it was built for.

Vienna's musical concentration is unusual even by European standards.

Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Haydn, Schubert, Mahler, and both Strauss generations all lived and worked here. The Vienna State Opera, opened in 1869, presents over 300 performances per year, and standing room tickets at the back of the house cost very little -- a deliberate decision to keep the audience democratic. The Naschmarkt, a long open market running along the Wienzeile since the 16th century, sells everything from Turkish spices to Styrian cheeses under a canopy of outdoor stalls.