Until 1816, SALZBURG was not Austrian, but an independent city-state ruled by powerful prince-archbishops. An ambitious and cultured bunch, they turned the city into the most Italianate north of the Alps, preserved to this day in the churches, squares and alleyways of the compact Altstadt spread beneath the brooding Hohensalzburg fortress. For many, Salzburg is the quintessential Austria, offering the best of the country's Baroque architecture, subalpine scenery and a musical heritage derived from the city's most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose likeness peers from every box of the ubiquitous chocolate delicacy, the Mozartkugel.
The Sound of Music
Despite being the most successful advertisement for Austrian tourism ever, the Oscar-winning 1965 film The Sound of Music – dubbed into German and released under the unmemorable title of Meine Lieder, meine Träume ("My songs, my dreams") – flopped in Austria itself. It didn't help that a German-language version of the Von Trapp story – directed, bizarrely enough, by Nazi favourite Wolfgang Liebeneiner – had already been a major hit. In the English-speaking world, the recent success of Sing-Along-A-Sound-of-Music, in which the audience is encouraged to dress up as nuns, has reconfirmed the film's status as a kitsch classic. The film was finally shown on Austrian television in 2001, and latterly found its way onto the repertoire of the Vienna Volksoper.
Notoriously dubbed "The Sound of Mucus" by its male lead, Christopher Plummer, the film tells the over-romanticized, but essentially true, story of the Von Trapp family, as related in Maria von Trapp's 1949 reminiscences The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. However, the film-makers condensed the entire story into one hectic summer. In reality, Maria and Captain von Trapp married in 1927, and only started their singing career after losing everything in the Depression. By the time of the Anschluss in 1938 (the year in which the film is set), they were internationally famous – so much so that they were invited to sing at Hitler's birthday party. It was this, and the fact that Maria was pregnant with their second child, as much as the fact that the captain had received his call-up papers, that prompted them to take the train over the border into Italy. (And, for the record, it was the butler who was the Nazi, not poor old Rolf, the postboy). Later that year, they sailed to America, settling in Stowe, Vermont, where they set up a music camp and lodge. The captain died in 1947, but the rest of the family enjoyed enormous success until they abandoned the singing in 1956. Maria died in 1987, aged 82, but the lodge is still going strong.
A guided minibus tour of sights associated with the film has become an essential part of the Salzburg experience for many, even if only to wallow in kitsch in the company of other English-speaking tourists. There's little to choose between the companies offering tours: Bob's Special Tours at Rudolfskai 38 (€40; 
0662/8495-11, 
www.bobstours.com ), Panorama Tours (€35; 0662/874029, www.panoramatours.com ) and Salzburg Sightseeing Tours (€35; 0662/881616; www.salzburg-sightseeingtours.at ), both with offices on Mirabellplatz. Four-hour-long tours depart twice daily (transfers from your hotel are usually included in the price), and follow a similar itinerary, taking in Salzburg's Nonnberg convent, where Maria was a novice, the Mirabellgarten, where they sing "Do-Re-Mi", the Rock Riding School of the Festspielhaus, where they performed their farewell show, Schloss Leopoldskron, the exterior of which was used to represent the back of the Von Trapp family home, the gardens of Schloss Hellbrunn, 5km south of the city centre, where a summerhouse was the setting for "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", the Salzkammergut landscapes seen at the start of the film and the church at Mondsee, used for the wedding. All these places can, of course, be visited without going on a tour.
For insatiable fans, from May to October there's a nightly Sound of Music show in the Sternbrau, Griesgasse 23 ( 0662/826617, www.soundofsalzburgshow.com ; €46 with dinner, €31 without), with classically trained singers performing songs from the film, plus operetta favourites and Mozart numbers. The food – as if you needed to ask – includes schnitzel with noodles and crisp apple strudel.