To understand Vienna is to come face to face with an ideal. All cities have their postcard backdrops, their colorful cliches. Paris has cafes and pensive faces and couples kissing on the Seine; Rome has boisterous laughter and late-night dolce vitas over wine and cigarettes. But more than any other city, Vienna holds to those moments and landscapes that create its ideal: Vienna clings to its courtly past, conveniently forgetting the horrors of two World Wars, and sees its future not as a chance for innovation, but as an opportunity to recapture what it has lost. These five “aspects” of Vienna – moments, landmarks, dishes – are just a small sampling of Vienna’s obsession with the past.

1) Palaces….in the Middle of the Street
Unlike Versailles, Schloss Schonbrunn does not require a lengthy train ride into the country. A mere ten minutes on the metro, and the landscape suddenly changes from urban sprawl to sprawling palace: once home to Hapsburg royalty, including the notorious Empress Sissi. Belvedere Palace, located in the staid residential district of Landstrasse, is even less rural. Vienna’s remarkable architecture accommodates palaces as a natural part of the city landscape, as expected and unheralded as one of the city’s numerous sausage-selling “Wurstelstands.”

2) The Courtly Bow
Express formality and aristocratic civility are mainstays of the Viennese soldier order. Old men still take off their hats, “Gruss Gott” is still heard in shops in the Nachtmarkt, and the social code still underscores every action. This is not limited to Vienna’s Hapsburg descendants, however – the literal bow has been been witnessed by this writer in the context of a completely different transaction: between two drug dealers carrying out a trade in the notoriously seedy Karlsplatz metro station.

Coffee in Vienna

3) The Wiener Brauner
Nothing is as quintessentially Viennese as this creamy cup of coffee, to be sipped slowly over German-language newspapers and cerebral conversation. Don’t have it alone, however – the full sensation of imperial decadence requires that you accompany your “Wiener Brauner” with one of Vienna’s deliciously rich pastries for more Habsburgian indulgence. The Sachertorte – named for the luxe Hotel Sacher – is a delectable concoction of chocolate and apricot. Cafe Sperl, on the Gumpendorferstrasse, is highly recommended for this sort of lazy afternoon.

4) Nights at the Opera
Whether paying for the deluxe opera boxes or standing or sitting with blocked view on a student fair, elegant nights at the Staatsoper in Vienna are nevertheless eminently democratic: all Viennese dress up for the grand and golden spectacle that is Viennese opera. Standing student tickets and blocked view tickets are available for around ten euro; the former require waiting in line the day of, the latter advanced booking.

5) A Walk Along the Ringstrasse
This “Ring-Street” encircling the imperial Inner Stadt is a perfect place for an evening promenade, where the Viennese stroll around the Stadtpark, Opera House, Museums Quarter, and a variety of Vienna’s most beautiful churches – Vienna retains strong Catholic roots – along with its most elegant hotels. The meandering walk along the Ringstrasse – ideally start north, at the lively Schwedenplatz, and work your way clockwise – is best taken at sunset.

By Tara Isabella Burton