One of Austria’s smallest provinces, Salzburg is proof that size really doesn’t matter. Well, not when you have Mozart, Maria von Trapp and the 600-year legacy of the prince-archbishops behind you. This is the land that grabbed the world spotlight and shouted ‘visit Austria!’ with Julie Andrews skipping joyously down the mountainsides in "The Sound of Music". This is the home of crisp apple strudel, dancing marionettes and high-on-a-hilltop castles.
Salzburg is every bit as grand as you imagine it: a baroque masterpiece, a classical music legend and Austria’s spiritual heartland. But it is just the prelude to the region’s sensational natural beauty. Just outside the city, the landscape is etched with deep ravines, glinting ice caves, karst plateaux and mountains of myth – in short, the kind of alpine gorgeousness that no well-orchestrated symphony or yodelling nun could ever quite capture.
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