Earlier this year, the old city of Salzburg was placed on UNESCO's list of the world's cultural and natural heritage. The list is eclectic and diverse - Salzburg will be joining the Taj Mahal, the Great Pyramids and the Grand Canyon - but the old city's inclusion seems particularly apt. Not only does it include some 105 churches and small chapels, connected by a spiders web of small, finely preserved streets, but it is also the birthplace of Austria's most famous son, Mozart.

The only thing to do when you reach Salzburg is to find somewhere high - not out of any suicidal impulse, but to get your bearings amongst the labyrinthine streets. In typically efficient Austrian fashion, this is made easy; a refined brass lift shoots up from street level inside the craggy rockface of the Monchsberg, a wild peak that dominates the city. From there you can enjoy a coffee and look out over a compact toy-town that is dissected by the grey-green Salzach river, and cupped on one side by the Monchsberg and the other by the leafy Kapuzinerberg.

It's a pleasant 20-minute walk through winding forest paths to the Hohensalzburg fortress. One thousand years old and in a fine state of repair, the fortress has never been conquered to this day. Just around the corner is Nonnberg, the oldest convent in mainland Europe and the place where the world's most famous novice, Maria Von Trapp of Sound of Music fame, spent her early years.

Descend to the old town via the efficient funicular railway, which leaves you a perfect starting point for visiting the cathedral and some of the numerous other churches that are packed into an area no more than a mile square. The baroque style predominates; intricate stone carvings in heavy stone and rather garish frescos are piled high on vaulted ceilings, pillars, and altar pieces. The effect is awesome if a little grotesque.

The other "must-sees" in Salzburg are the birthplace and residence of Mozart. Amadeus Wolfgang is squabbled over childishly by Vienna and Salzburg. The Viennese declare rather begrudgingly that he may have been born in Salzburg but he composed his best music, including The Marriage of Figaro, in Vienna while Salzburgers are quick to point out that they, at least know where the great master was born.

This last is a waspish reminder that Mozart was buried in an unmarked grave in the cemetery of St Mark in Vienna; ghoulish tourists will have to content themselves with a rather soulless monument in the Central Cemetary. In Salzburg, however, Mozart's birthplace and later apartment have been restored to a state that is both accurate and interesting.

Here you can see Mozart's first tiny violin, his bawdy painted dart board, and read the refreshingly wry letters he wrote to his beloved sister, Nannerl. The two museums would quickly turn anyone into a Mozart groupie so it is just as well that there are excellent concerts available year round, building up to a frenzy of Advent masses and high-class carol services around Christmas.

Austria is fairly compact and from Salzburg it is possible to be high in the Alps within an hour or two. Zell am See is a charming village. With 60 chair lifts and funiculars decorating the massive Schmittenhohe and neighbouring Kitzsteinhorn glacier and guaranteed snow from the beginning of December, it is a paradise for skiing and snowboarding. In summer and autumn there are also superb facilities for Alpine walking.

Vienna, Austria's capital is one of the most aesthetically pleasing and stimulating of European capitals. First established by the Romans on the banks of the Danube in the first century AD, it has continued to be a vital city in European history, particularly in the reign of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Vienna has abundance of interesting architecture, with fine examples of not only ancient baroque but also mould-breaking art deco, or Jugendstihl buildings and the "Red Vienna" buildings of the Social Democrats earlier this century.

A good way to get an idea of the different styles of the city is to jump on the No. 1 tram that travels eternally round Ring street, encompassing the old city. Emperor Franz Joseph is responsible for most of the monumental architecture built in the weighty historical style of the Ring in the 1860s.

Inside the Ring are two impressive edifices; Hofburg, or Imperial Palace, and St Stephen's Cathedral. The palace was the winter residence of the Hapsburgs.

These days the palace is better known as the home of two of Vienna's most famous institutions - the Vienna Boys Choir who sing Sunday mass in the Royal Chapel and the Spanish Riding School. For the Viennese, neither of these is the heart of their city; that honour belongs to St Stephen's cathedral whose lattice work spire towers above tourist and office worker alike.

The patterned tiled roof is almost childlike with its wild chevrons and eagle decorations but inside it's an altogether more serious affair. The walls drip with statues and side altars and there is a beautiful stone pulpit by Anton Pilgram, a 16th century sculptor so proud of his work he popped himself in alongside the portraits of the church's founding fathers.

The cathedral has recently been the subject of debate, or rather its close neighbour, the Haas Haus, has. Built in 1990 by Hans Hollein, it is an unashamedly modern cacophony of mirrors, windows and chrome, that jostles with the beloved St Stephen's cathedral. Everyone has strong views on it, although ironically the views of the cathedral's roccoco spires reflected in the bending glass has become a favourite tourist snapshot.

Shocking architecture is nothing new to Vienna. In the 1890s a number of artists and architects, including Gustav Klimt, Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner, began working in the art deco style as a direct response to the overwhelming historicism of the contemporary art and architecture.

It is an unusual tour of Vienna to visit the work they left behind; the 1898 Secession building complete with golden leafy ball rearing from its roof; the large collection of Klimt's gold encrusted paintings in the Austrian Museum in Upper Belvedere palace, and two gems of Wagner art deco exteriors that can be taken in at the same time as a visit to the bustling flea market at Naschmarkt.

The coming months are good ones to visit Vienna; there is an exhibition on the Flemish artist Breughel and his sons that will bring many of the artists works together for the first time in the Museum of Fine Arts. There is also a funky exhibition called "Kitsch and Kult" that is dedicated entirely to furniture and ornaments of the 1950s in the Alpenmilchzentrale. The other good reason to make and Austrian trip soon is that Vienna is a city made for Christmas. The snowy streets are full of advent markets selling crafts, trinkets and lebkuchen, the delightful ornate cookies you can hang from your tree or munch by the handful. There are so many people out and about on the streets that the government erects tents at many of the squares and street corners where you can drink a restorative glass of gluhwein and join in the dancing. Vienna is particularly good on free music; from Schubert masses in the Royal chapel to string quartets in the many coffee houses and, of course, the opera. While this is not free, cheap tickets are always available a few hours before the nightly performance at the magnificent opera house.